devilshalo

Gort! Klaatu barada Neo!

Keanu Reeves lands on 'Earth'
Actor to star in classic sci-fi remake
By MICHAEL FLEMING

Twentieth Century Fox has set Keanu Reeves to star in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," its re-imagining of the 1951 Robert Wise-directed sci-fi classic.

Reeves committed over the weekend to play Klaatu, a humanoid alien who arrives on Earth accompanied by an indestructible, heavily armed robot and a warning to world leaders that their continued aggression will lead to annihilation by species watching from afar.

Erwin Stoff is producing, with Scott Derrickson ("The Exorcism of Emily Rose") directing from a script by David Scarpa. Reeves' commitment puts the picture on track for a late fall or early 2008 production start. Studio sees it as a tentpole.

The Klaatu role was originated by Michael Rennie. The 1951 film's premise, a response to the rise of the Cold War after WWII, is being updated, and the film will use advances in visual effects.

It also returns "The Matrix" star to his strong suit in the sci-fi realm and puts him in back-to-back films for Fox. He just completed the David Ayer-directed "The Night Watchman," for Fox Searchlight/Regency about police corruption based on a story by James Ellroy. Forest Whitaker, Chris Evans and Hugh Laurie also star.

Reeves is repped by 3 Arts and CAA.

mndtrp

[Predictable bitching about remakes] There's nothing new in Hollywood. Leave this alone. Remakes suck donkey balls. I'm boycotting this. There needs to be some original movies coming out. [/Predictable bitching about remakes]

The original is one of my favorite movies, so I don't imagine a remake would rank very highly on my list. I'll still rent it, though, as I enjoy seeing how someone can take an old story and create it in their vision. Kind of like cover songs, some of those are enjoyable.

Also, if you think there aren't enough "new ideas" in movies, come out of your hole and dig a little deeper. There are a lot of movies coming out each year, and most of them are original, or at least not popular remakes. The only reason most people think the theaters are full of remakes, are because these get the most exposure. Built in fan-base and all.

AGuyNamedMike

Michael Rennie's characterization of Klaatu was cold and detached, so for once, casting Keanu makes sense (though some might prefer he be stuck in the Gort suit).

nateman

Quoted for Truth.

Once I saw Keanu Reeves name I was finished, I’m never going to watch it. It's sad that Forest Whitaker is in this though, I might have to change my mind about it, he's a damn good actor.

Rizor

Actually, I think they meant Whitaker is in The Night Watchmen.

FaustBos

This is one film (of many) that does NOT need a remake. I'd prefer to see a theatrical rerelease. Would love to see this on the big screen.... well, bigger than my 2.6 meter screen :-)

marty888

Remakes have been a part of movie-making going all the way back to the silent era, and yes, there have been remakes that match or improve on the original. It wasn't until the third attempt that The Maltese Falcon really clicked, and as much as I love the originals, I wouldn't want to be without Cronenberg's The Fly or Kaufman's take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Having said that .... this is one of the shittiest ideas to hit town in a long time. There are very few movies that I would consider sancrosanct re: remakes, and this is definitely one of them.

islandclaws

I admit that it is possible for a remake to be better than the original, but this is more than likely not going to be the case here. There are so many essential elements that make TDTESS a sci-fi classic that you just can't replicate it for today's audiences and expect it to have the same impact. This new version will probably feature Gort laser-blasting dozens of soldiers while Klaatu flies around the planet on some spacy hovercraft thing. Derrickson hasn't done enough yet to prove to me he won't fuck this up.

Jon2

I've been a SF buff since I was 9 (early '60s) and Day is one of my favorite 50's SF films. However, the movie storyline is so scientificaly/politically dated it's almost as quaint as Melies' Trip to the Moon.

If they try for a version that is closer to the short story that Day is based on, rather than a straight up remake, I don't have a problem. The original short story tells a much better story than the movie, which is clearly a product of its time.

The original story doesn't suffer from any of the films dated scientific/socio/political viewpoints. It also has a nice little "twist" ending.

RichC2

imo, TDTESS is apt for remake, however, not as a big hollywood production.

FaustBos

You forgot the obvious love interest they will most definitely have to put in the remake. blahhhhhh.

With the amount of utter drek thats out there, couldn't they take a good script that had a poor execution?

Interestingly, I've been watching some old scifis which are featured on one of those 50 "all time great" scifis. I've just picked one at random that I thought would suck, but to my surprise, it was quite an interesting film. I*d rather see a remake of something like that, which can benefit from today's filmmaking. TDTESS is a timeless classic and doesn't need or deserve a remake. You might as well remake gone with the wind or the wizard of oz.

By the way, the film I'm referring to above was "First Spaceship on Venus"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053250/

redskull

So what's Keanu's catchphrase gonna be, "Klaatu, barada, nik-Whoaaaaah!"

I was thinking this same thing. The original was very restrained. Other than Gort blasting a couple of rifles and tanks, there's very little action. The whole plot is basically Klaatu telling us to knock off the nuclear testing or he'll knock it off for us. I can't see current Hollywood being so restrained. There'll have to have some sort of massive battle in the last act, and I guarantee there'll have to be explosions. Lots of them.

On the other hand, I expected the worst from the Dawn of the Dead and War of the Worlds remakes, and was pleasantly surprised by both, so who knows?

FaustBos

That of course, is an interesting point and well taken. I'm a bit embarrassed to say, I was not aware of the short story that this was based on. Can you shed some light?

drcos

It is based on the short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates, written in 1940. And based rather loosely, as you will see once you read it.

zombiezilla

...about that ending to the short story? What was it? Could you give us the gist (with spoiler tags, of course)?......

RichardW

You can read the story here: http://thenostalgialeague.com/olmag/bates.html

MoviePage

No.

drcos

I didn't want to give the ending (even with spoiler tags) because the ending is a lot better if you read the story (which you can do online).

I actually got it in a sci-fi short story collection (which I don't have the name of because my mom borrowed it , it also included We Can Remember it for you Wholesale (Total Recall), Air Raid (Millenium), Eight O'Clock in the Morning (They Live), and several others.

Interesting to read the basis and see how much the movies differ (although you could make the same argument for movies based on books).

The most fun for me was reading John Campbell's Who Goes There? which was the basis for both versions of The Thing, to see how all three varied.

FaustBos

wow, this is a great reading list. I should read more short story but I never know where to start. Will give all of these a look. If you can recomment a collection book. Were these all in the same volume?

drcos

I had to poke around on Amazon to figure out the name of it, it's Science Fiction Classics: The Stories That Morphed Into Movies.

Although I have a few other anthologies with one or two of these stories, this is the one with all of them.

devilshalo

Connelly in contact with "Earth" redo
Monday November 5 9:48 PM ET

Jennifer Connelly will star opposite Keanu Reeves in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," a remake of Robert Wise's 1951 film about an alien who comes to Earth with a message: Live in peace or be destroyed.

Connelly will play Helen, the scientist who makes first contact with the alien named Klaatu (Reeves). The roles were originally played by Patricia Neal and Michael Rennie.

The Fox project is scheduled to begin production next month in Vancouver. Scott Derrickson ("The Exorcism of Emily Rose") is directing

Connelly is in theaters with "Reservation Road." Reeves starred last year in "The Lake House" and "A Scanner Darkly."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

DonnachaOne

Scott bloody Derrickson? Really?

mndtrp

Duality

It would be nice if there was a creative use of Black & White film. Pleasantville comes to mind. Something to give the movie punch without making it an Independence Day debacle.

DullandWitless

End of discussion.