When I think of I AM LEGEND, the 2007 adaptation of the Richard Matheson novel starring Will Smith, there is a strain of irritation that takes hold. On one hand it had a lot going for it and had some genuinely cool moments. Everything seemed to be going okay until the final reveal of the “monsters”…as CGI. It’s the one thing that takes me immediately out of the movie, while providing no good reason other than laziness for not using practical effects.
However, during the process of bringing I AM LEGEND to the big screen, director Ridley Scott was once attached with Arnold Schwarzenegger to star, and during the pre-production process Scott had a series of make-up tests done with Studio ADI to finalize a direction for the zombie/vampire creatures. Like the majority of Scott’s work, practical effects take the forefront and seeing these images stirs a hurricane of lament, because I’d take these awesome effects under Scott’s direction with Ah-nold in the lead over the flatulating balloon that we got.
You can scroll through StudioADI’s You Tube channel and see a number of cool make-up tests for their work, including ALIEN: RESURRECTION, STARSHIP TROOPERS, THE THING (prequel), and that infamously awesome Green Goblin work that never was on Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN.
Play the “what if” game: