Does anyone know if "I am Legend" is a remake of "Omega Man"?

Question

It looks like it, but I haven't seen it yet.

Anyone know?

Answer 1

i disagree with the first answer. sorry....

The Omega man is a science fiction thriller based on the 1954 novel "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson.

Set in 1977, two years after biological warfare wiped out the entire world population, except for Richard Neville (Charlton Heston) and a few that have been mutated into light-sensitive flesh-eating psychopathic zombies. Neville, a military scientist who had experimented on himself with a vaccine now searches for a cure for these dying zombies before they kill him.


I Am Legend -----From what I can tell from the movie trailer it seems to follow the book. Will Smith's character's name is Robert Neville, he is survivor of a virus that has wiped out most of the population of the earth, including his family. The virus transforms all that contact it into vampires, ("vampires" is not used in the movie though). In the book, Neville survives due to his immunity to the virus. A temporary cure is created, allowing living people who have the virus to walk in daylight, and even eventually achieve a normal lifestyle. To them, Neville is on par with the vampire's who strive to kill the new societies founders. The book's location is Los Angeles, but the movie takes place in New York. As far as Robert knows, he is the only uninfected person in New York, and possibly the world. He spends his time trying to make contact with other survivors, working on a cure to the virus using his blood and, of course, killing vampires, dead and living.

I Am Legend is the third movie based on the 1954 Richard Matheson book of the same name (Matheson also penned Nightmare at 20,000 feet.) The first movie was called "The Last Man on Earth" starring Vincent Price, it was filmed in Italy in 1964.

This second movie based on the book was the 1971 classic movie "The Omega Man" that starred Charlton Heston as Robert Neville and Anthony Zerbe as Matthias the leader of the infected people that do their best to kill Charlton Heston due to the fact that Neville represents everything wrong that used to be before the virus.

Answer 2

The films are as follows, in chronological order:
The Last Man on Earth~Vincent Price
The Omega Man~Charlton Heston
I Am Legend~Will Smith'
I Am Omega~Mark Dacascos

All four are based on Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend".

I was a bit late on finding this. There were no answers when I started. I won't bother adding anything else.

Answer 3

It's not actually a remake but another adaptation of "I Am Legend". It was first made as "The Last Man On Earth" in 1964 and starred Vincent Price. Then it was remade in 1971 as "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston. I admit that I am rather apprehensive about this latest adaptation because of Will Smith. I'm sorry but I don't like seeing him in remakes of classic sci-fi TV shows ("Wild Wild West") or movies ("I, Robot").

Answer 4

Not sure if it's a re-make of "The Omega Man" but by seeing the trailer it sure looks it. When will they learn to leave classics alone, they just can't make these films nowadays. Every re-make in the past twenty years has been a poor shadow of the original movie. The only exception to the above, although not a classic is "Hairspray"

Answer 5

No, the movie "I Am Legend" is not based on the movie "Omega Man." "Omega Man" is based on Richard Matheson's novel "I AM LEGEND" which is what the new Will Smith movie is based on. If you like to read...the original book, I Am Legend...is really very good! = D