Hollywood is once again looking to bastardize the work of one of the genius Authors of the 20th Century, as they've unveiled a trailer for the new Hugh Jackman vehicle "Real Steel", based on the 1956 short story "Steel" by Richard Matheson. See the trailer here
In the short story, which was one of sixteen Matheson saw turned into Twilight Zone episodes, Lee Marvin plays a boxer-turned-promoter in a future where humans have been banned from the sport, replaced by humanoid androids. In the end he must enter the ring in disguise and battle one of these machines when his unit breaks down. The results are inevitable, but the story remains human and impactful. After seeing the trailer for this remake, one wonders how bad things will get when the 84-year-old Matheson finally leaves this mortal plane and his tome can be properly rifled through like items at a dead uncle's garage sale.
Hollywood has failed miserably to translate the humanity and simple elegance of Matheson's work time and again, most recently with The Box, a full length piece of shit based loosely on his classic short "Button, Button". In the past, it has tried to bring the author's finest work, "I am Legend", to the big screen in three pedestrian efforts (1964's The Last Man on Earth, 1971's The Omega Man and 2007's I am Legend), all of which fell short of capturing the true emotion of the novel. In fact, the DVD-released alternate ending to the Will Smith version might be the closest to expressing Matheson's closing theme, so of course Hollywood didn't go with it.
It's getting disappointing as a fan of Richard Matheson's work to see what Hollywood does with original, truly great ideas. In over a half century of writing, Matheson's imagination has spawned the aforementioned 16 Twilight Zones, several Night Gallery (Rod Serling's follow-up to The Twilight Zone) episodes, countless other efforts as a producer and writer for television screenplays (as original author and on rewrite efforts), over a dozen films, and has been such a part of American Pop Culture that both The Simpsons and TheFamily Guy have paid homage.
Let's just hope Hollywood gets it right and treats one of the finest American authors we've been privieged to read and celebrate with at least a modicum of that respect. It could happen...shamefully, however, it won't while Mr. Matheson is still with us. Jersey guys get no respect!
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