Vancouver, BC (CinemaSpy) -- If you’re under the age of 25, and your idea of an antique is a PlayStation II, then you’re probably not familiar with the name Richard Matheson. This week, however, a whole new generation of moviegoers will become acquainted with his work — re-imagined though it may be — as Warner Bros. Pictures releases the feature, I Am Legend, starring Will Smith.

I Am Legend is based on Matheson’s famous novel of the same name. In the book, a terrible plague has decimated the world and those who were unfortunate enough to survive have been transformed into bloodthirsty creatures of the night, except that is, for Robert Neville, who seems to be immune to this disease. Ironically, however, he is now the outsider in this twisted, upside-down world.

Constructive in launching the careers of Hollywood heavyweights like Steven Spielberg (anyone remember a little film called Duel?), Matheson’s literary legacy is enviable. He has written several short stories and novels (i.e. “Deus Ex Machina”, “The Shrinking Man”, “Hellhouse”), penned episodes of several TV series over the years, including Night Gallery, Star Trek and Amazing Stories, and lent his name to a handful of feature film adaptations such as Somewhere in Time, What Dreams May Come and Stir of Echoes.

Many people probably don’t know that Alfred Hitchcock even invited Matheson to work on the screenplay for The Birds, but creative differences proved insurmountable. Matheson wanted more of an emphasis on the characters in the story, with the birds being featured less prominently; Hitchcock disagreed.

Author Steven King has said of Richard Matheson, “[He was] the author who influenced me most as a writer.” Referring to “The Shrinking Man”, King remarked, “A horror story if there ever was one…a great adventure story — it is certainly one of that select handful that I have given to people, envying them the experience of the first reading.”

With luck, this latest film adaptation of “I Am Legend” will be akin to a first-time experience, too. Enthusiasts fervently hope that it will scrub the jejune tendencies that mar too may of today’s big blockbusters, and — for the cognoscenti among us who remember the two previous cinematic adaptations, 1964’s The Last Man on Earth and 1970’s The Omega Man — finally do justice to Matheson’s original story.

The screenplay, by Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevich, does update the tale somewhat. In the film, brilliant scientist Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the last human survivor in what is left of New York City, and possibly the entire world. A terrible, incurable, manmade virus has led to an apocalypse in which infected humans manifest many of the symptoms of vampirism. Carnivorous shadow-dwellers, ‘The Infected’ devour or infect anyone or anything in their path. Neville spends three years scavenging for food and supplies, eking out an existence while attempting to avoid the creatures and the wrathful blight they wish to visit upon him. Neville is driven by only one remaining purpose: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood before time runs out.

I recently sat down with the celebrated writer to talk about his famous “vampire” story, and to ask him to reflect upon a storied career that has seen him cross paths — often professionally, sometimes personally — with luminaries from Rod Serling and Vincent Price, to William Shatner and Richard Donner.

CinemaSpy: You’ve had what most writers would consider to be a prolific career with an enviable list of extraordinary stories told in one form or another. To what do you attribute this tremendous creativity over the years?

Richard Matheson: Interest and curiosity about varying subjects…I have had many interests that have jumped from one subject to another over the years—everything from westerns to metaphysics.

CinemaSpy: How would you describe your writing in one line?

Richard Matheson: I think the best description of what I do is to characterize normal people in normal situations, and then have something offbeat happen to them. I wouldn’t even attempt to write something like Harry Potter, for example.

CinemaSpy: When you were a young boy growing up, what works influenced you the most, do you believe? And at what point did you realize that you were particularly drawn to the realms of horror and the supernatural?

Richard Matheson: I was always drawn to realistic fantasies. The first book I borrowed from the library was “Pinocchio in Africa”. After that, i was drawn to all the fairy tale anthologies I could obtain. There was a series of colored ones—red, blue, green etc—that were full of great stories and I read them all.