Here's Why The 'Logan's Run' Remake Is Important

If there's one cinematic trend the world is caught up in at the moment, it's the telling of post-apocalyptic stories. Mad Max: Fury Road left audiences in awe, The Maze Runner is releasing a sequel in September, and the final Hunger Games film has been marked off on fans' calendars for years. Now, we're getting one more tale of a world post-ruin: according to The Hollywood Reporter, a Logan's Run remake is in the works, meaning that a film that helped launch the new trend is officially getting the modern treatment.

Logan's Run is a 1976 sci-fi film, but the concept is one you may see mirrored in several of today's major pictures. The cult film is set in a futuristic, seemingly "perfect" society with one dark caveat: no one is allowed to live past the age of 30. Those who attempt to run from the domed civilization — "runners" — will be terminated by the Sandmen.

If the concept sounds familiar, it should — without the influence of Logan's Run, there would likely be no Divergent, no Maze Runner, and certainly no Hunger Games. It's the Hunger Games that specifically echoes the ideas in Logan's Run. Both films (and the texts they're individually based off of) feature human sacrifice, a hedonistic ruling class, and a major rebellion by the oppressed members of society. If you love Katniss, you may want to thank Logan — while he certainly wasn't the first hero of this kind, it's clear that his story inspired The Hunger Games.

The remake of Logan's Run has been in the works for a while now (Ryan Gosling was even attached to the project back in 2010) but it makes perfect sense why development is starting again. Fans are hungry for dystopian flicks, and with The Hunger Games closing up shop in November, a Logan's Run reboot might be able to slide into the game just in time.

Logan's Run has an advantage of being remade today that it didn't have in 1976, and that's high-quality CGI: the story may be iconic, but the cult flick's simple effects don't exactly hold up in the same way that the effects in a major movie franchise like Star Wars does. I'm not honestly not sure that this robot was top of the line back in 1976:

Writer/producer Simon Kinberg, who penned and produced the new Fantastic Four film, is reportedly set to tackle this remake, and it could have a really interesting place in today's film landscape. Let's hope he keeps the story and ups the ante, because let's face it: we we aren't sick of this dystopian thing just yet.

Images: United Artists; Giphy