Due in December, nothing substantial or even trivial has leaked from 20th Century Fox’s big budget remake of sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Keanu Reeves, John Cleese, Jennifer Connelly and Kathy Bates. Reeves, who will next be seen in Aprils’s LAPD actioner Street Kings and plays the alien Klaatu in the holiday tent pole, talked to MTV about the enigmatic project and how it will differ from the 1951 original. While the movie’s premise will still revolve around aliens telling Earthlings to figure out world peace (and pronto!), director Scott Derrickson’s (Exorcism of Emily Rose) take will be updated for the Prius and metal water bottle set…
“The first one was borne out of the cold war and nuclear détente. Klaatu came and was saying cease and desist with your violence. If you can’t do it yourselves we’re going to do it. That was the film of that day,” Reeves explained. “The version I was just working on, instead of being man against man, it’s more about man against nature. My Klaatu says that if the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives. I’m a friend to the earth. …what we are doing and who we are as a species. We’re trying to reach beyond the idea of [just] environmentalism.”
Yeah, that’s cool Keanu, but what about the film’s signature robot Gort? Will it still look like a trophy statuette for “Greatest Rave Act 2002″?
“Hey man, don’t put that tin man down! That was iconoclastic!” Reeves protested. “[But] yes, we have another version of the [robot].”
Discuss: Can a sci-fi film doubling as an After School Special connect big in 2008?
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Sounds more like Dennis Hopper should play Klaatu:
“Pop quiz Hot shot… if the Earth dies, you die! If you die, the earth survives. I’m a friend to the earth! What do you do? What do you do!?!?!? ”
If film has taught us one thing…The united states does not negotiate with terrorists OR Aliens. So the plot seems kinda laughable to me…
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Now, this makes sense. The original movie is kind of dated. I didn’t think a exact remake would go over well and frankly it wasn’t in any way interesting to me. But I like the sound of this. It’s the issue of our time. My interest had increased 100%.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
This could be the next War of the Worlds in terms of box office.
It’s obvious that Hollywood ran out of original ideas so long ago.
Keanu must be the easiest guy to work with and have the world’s greatest agent! He is totally wrong in terms of casting, IMO. However, his movies do make money, in general.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
@ mulder..”Could be the next war of the worlds”
….as in the first 20 minutes are awesome…and the last 40 or so minutes are a bag of wet shit?
you’re probably right.
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Jonny, you may be right. It just seems to me that big blockbuster remakes don’t often work. However, I am looking forward to The Incredible Hulk, Speed Racer, and Indiana Jones 4: The $11 Steven Spielberg forced me to spend
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Boy, I’m going to be popular here:
“It’s the issue of our time.”
Yes, drink the Kool-Aid.
In the original film Klaatu and his buddies didn’t care if we all blew each other to bits - their concern was that we would take our violent ways out into the great space neighborhood.
What’s the threat in this one? That we’re going to pollute the solar system? More than the asteriod belt?
Vic
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:08 pm
The only blockbuster I wanna see is Dark Knight.
Other than that, the only films I’ll pay to see this year are:
Harmony Korine’s Mr Lonely
Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York
and
Choke by Clark Gregg.
Those are the films, in the future I wanna brag that I saw in a theater this year.
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
jonny, no Iron Man? Come on, bro!
Vic
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 pm
@ Screen rant..
So maybe they will see us as a disease or a cancer… Like Angent smith called us in the matrix. The aliens show up, give us all the cures to all our diseases…cancer, aids, ebola…give us a magic potion that if we put one drop of it in our gas tank and fill it with water our car will run for a million years and never need a tune up. Then they say, we solved all your problems…. stop fucking with the earth for 10 years or we’ll come back and kill you. If you cant live without destroying the earth…then you cannot be trusted for space exploration. There will be no star ship federation of planets.. We will kill you from outer space..no warning , just one day you will die.
Can we do it?
The suspense is killing me….
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:25 pm
@ screenrant..
*hangs head in shame.
I can’t believe I forgot Iron man.
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Ok, now that I actually like, lol.
Vic
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:39 pm
doesn’t he mean “iconic” instead of “iconoclastic”? unless he means that gort was being sacrilegious with his look/challenging our preconceived notions of what a robot should look like? which, in that case, keanu is a silly, silly man.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:20 am
Will the name of the robot be changed to GORE instead of GORT? With Al Gore starring as himself? Looks like they are about to ruin yet another classic. The only remake that really worked was the Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake which worked mainly because it had an ending no one was expecting - an ending where mankind doesnt win. Remaking Independence Day might work if they do it where the aliens win and mankind is defeated - Jeff Goldblum doesnt hack into an alien computer with ease and Wil Smith doesnt learn to fly an alien spacecraft in 30 seconds. The recent remake of Omega Man (I Am Legend) was ok but it was basically the same as the original except it had alot of ugly CGI zombies and animals. Omega man was actually another sequel that was better than the one with Vincent Price which was rather corny as I kept expecting Michael Jackson to pop up.