Director Scott Derrickson dazzled Con-goers on Thursday with three clips from his remake of Robert Wise’s 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. The first clip was an extension of the interrogation scene from the recently launched trailer to the film. The scene starts with a barefooted Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) being wheeled into an interrogation room bound to a wheelchair. He is being escorted by several Feds. He is hooked up to the lie detector and the Feds leave. Alone with the interrogator, Klaatu is asked a few ‘control’ questions. When asked if he is aware of an impending attack on the US, he responds “You should let me go… now.”
After a brief pause, the interrogator reaches for the machine and is greeted by a shot of energy that moves from Klaatu, through the lie detector wires and into the interrogator. The jolt is so violent it seems to fuse the interrogator’s legs to the underside of the table while forcing his head and shoulders back. The table has been turned at this point and Klaatu beings to ask the questions. Among them “Is there a way out of here?” “Is there a code word.” and “What size is that suit?”
The Feds in the hallway were also incapacitated by the ‘energy’ from Klaatu… who emerges from the facility unimpeded wearing the interrogator’s suit.
Clip 2 shows Klaatu and Jacob (Jaden Smith) riding in the bed of a pick-up truck. Leaning back against the cab, the boy tells Klaatu that he is ‘not so scary’ and that he ‘doesn’t even look like an alien.’ After a pause, the boy admits he told his step-mom (Jennifer Connelly) that they should kill Klaatu… adding that he ‘didn’t mean it though.’
“You didn’t?” asks Klaatu. “Not anymore,” said Jacob.
Jacob then asked, “So what’s going to happen now?”
“I was just wondering the same thing,” Klaatu answers.
The final clip was a speedy montage of some of the action scenes in the film, including good shots of the spherical space ships in the movie, which resemble huge marbles.
Derrickson also confirmed that Gort IS in the film, despite early rumors.
“It wouldn’t be ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ without him,” he said.
Derrickson said that the design group went through a lot of images and ideas in order to get a good grasp on how best to update Gort for 2008.
“We ended up not far from the original,” said Derrickson.
He added that he is still working with Weta Workshop on the details of Gort as well as other elements of the movie.
The Day the Earth Stood Still opens on December 12.
