According to Box Office Mojo, The classic sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Stood
Still is going into production and is to open on May 9th, 2008. The original is a sci-fi classic from 1951 about an alien and a robot that land on Earth to try and save the world from being destroyed by its own excesses, including nuclear weapons.
Box Office Mojo claims it’s being produced by Fox. It begs the question, will they do a good job or screw up
this remake? Recently we saw Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds, another 50’s classic, fortunately they did a pretty good job with that. The remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still is to star Keanu Reeves, of Matrix fame.
No word on who will play the Robot, Gort.
But I think Al Gore would be my first choice. 😉
I can see it now, Keanu Reeves as Klaatu gets injured by a trigger happy swat team, and he gives this command to the female co-star:
“Get this message to Gore, if you don’t, he’ll destroy the earth….”
“Kyoto… belotta… taxxo”
Yeah, Gore already plays a good robot.
And Hansen could play the lunatic on the corner with the sandwich board with the words “The end is nigh!” on it.
Keanu Reeves, of Matrix fame.
No, of “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and “Johhny Mnemonic” fame.
Anthony,
I recently re-read the original War of the Worlds which takes place in England in the 19th century. Cruise, who is kind of an idiot, did a good job in the recent remake, and the movie stays pretty true to the book, but changes the era.
It’s too bad that Canoe Reeves was selected for this remake. His wooden acting matched the character in Matrix, but he’s gone downhill since Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Even so, I doubt he could damage the story more than Travolta did to Elrondo Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth. That was a rather good science fiction book, and a rather awful movie.
Algore might make a good Gort, he invented the robot you know, but I’d like to see something different. Jessica Alba perhaps.
Lon
FYI: A trilogy of books starting with “The White Mountains” is set in the world where the tripod mounted aliens from the War of the Worlds actually conquer earth. I just read them to my son, and they’re great science fiction for kids.
It will be impossible to improve on the original imho, no matter how huge the special effects budget.
The Bernard Herrmann score for the original absolutely outstanding. I see no room for improvement there either but it will be interesting to see who gets to compose it and how it turns out.
The original soundtrack is out of print so maybe a new film will be the impetus for a re-release of the original.
It could be an interesting film and if the silent Gort is to have a voice Al Gore would be an an excellent choice.
While I loved the original, there is much room for improvement. The big question in my mind is who will direct?
Except that it won’t be war and nuclear weapons this time. It’ll be CO2 and global warming! Or maybe they’ll just be afraid we’ll export AlGore.
If they would make a film based on “Return of the Master”, which the original film was loosely based on, I’d be more excited. The ending was a lot more chilling.
Besides, who could they cast who could possibly be better than Patricia Neal?
(pant! pant!)
(OK, I’m giving away my age here)
Re: John “Gortz” — While I loved the original, there is much room for improvement.
Philistine!
😉
Actually, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” was the second best movie with the line “Klaatu Barada Nikto”
The original was pure propaganda for the purpose of making the US give up its nuclear advantage over the Soviets. It was fairly well done, but so were the films of Sergei Eisenstein and Leni Riefenstahl.
Remakes are rarely as good as the original. “Invasion” had none of the suspense or intensity of the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. That was the third remake of the Don Siegel classic none of which could touch the original.
Now if they got Andrew Lloyd Webber to produce “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, then it might be worth seeing. A dancing, singing Gort…that’s entertainment!
Re: “A dancing, singing Gort…that’s entertainment!”
Maybe Mel Brooks should come out of retirement and produce “Young Klaatu”.
So sad Peter Boyle passed away last year, he would have made a wonderful song and dance Gort.
Mel Brooks retired? Perish the thought. He just produced “Young Frankenstein – The Musical” for the stage.
You’re right though, Peter Boyle would have been a great Gort.
Question: In the remake will the Doctors still stand around in the hospital hall discussing the patient, while everybody smokes?
I always wondered what “Klaatu Barada Nikto” means. My guess is that it translates to “Execute Klaatu’s plan B.”
Jim perhaps this will help:
The phrase was used to stop the robot Gort from destroying the Earth: “Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!” There is no known translation, although “Klaatu” is the name of the humanoid alien protagonist in the film, and “nikto” is Russian for “nobody / no one.”
According to the first issue of the magazine Fantastic Films which offered a translation of Klaatu’s alien dialogue, the phrase appears to translate somewhat loosely as “I (Klaatu) die, repair me, do not retaliate.”
The problem is the definition of an aggressor. They spent several days on Earth. There must have been several murders nearby (not to mention on the entire planet). Why didn’t Gort go crazy over them? Maybe he only responds to aggression between planets. If there is an anonymous, cross-planet, terror attack, does he investigate until he finds the perpetrators or does he just attack the entire planet (he was apparently willing to destroy the Earth for Klaatu’s death)?
Anyway, the scenario was more complicated than the three steps you mentioned:
1. Terminate retaliation (override automatic, irrevocable, destructive response based on potential victims correct word phrase–not very secure);
2. Pick up human female and take her into protective custody;
3. Find location of Klaatu (dead Martians or whatever must be easy to locate in a human city);
4. Travel stealthily through alien city to Klaatu’s location avoiding aliens (this was a good trick for an extremely large, slow-moving robot);
5. Vaporize back wall and obtain Klaatu’s body without raising the alarm (assuming he knew where the back wall was, and everyone in the jail was deaf);
6. Return to ship with Klaatu’s body again without being seen;
7. Bring Klaatu back to life.
And the new phrase will be “Klaatu Obama Nikto!”