I recently gave the 1951 “sci-fi” classic The Day the Earth Stood Still a watch as Keanu Reeves gave an interview with MTV discussing the direction his remake with director Scott Derrickson would take. Reeves’ statement certainly is different from the original and I am not quite sure how it will all work.
The 57-year-old classic centers on an alien spacecraft that lands on Earth and from it comes an alien known only as Klaatu (the role Reeves will be playing in the remake). The film was, as Reeves tells MTV, “borne out of the cold war and nuclear détente” and boiled down to a peaceful alien race basically telling humans to abandon the war stuff and if you even try bringing it into space you will be destroyed. Heavy stuff, and it was executed quite well considering it was the early ’50s. As I watched I also started to get excited since I hadn’t read Reeves’ comments yet (I just knew they existed), and my mind started wandering. I began to wonder about all the things the remake could focus on. What had the aliens listened to? What did they key in on that would bring them 250 million miles to warn us to give it up or be destroyed?
A couple of lines in the film also interested me, all coming from Klaatu Mr. Carpenter’s conversation with Professor Barnhardt. One comment Barndhardt makes is, “It isn’t faith that makes good science Mr. Carpenter, it’s curiosity.” After talking for a moment on how to best prove his alien power Klaatu asks Barnhardt what would be a suitable suggestion, “Leveling New York City perhaps or sinking the Rock of Gibraltar?” Uh, yikes, scary parallels in that last one. However, it opens up so many doors to destruction, and yet the film carefully chooses an alternative to violence and I really hope the new film has come up with an equally interesting option, assuming this conversation still exists.
However, the question remains, if the first one focused on war and the human tendency to destroy wouldn’t that mean the new film could do the same considering the state of the world today? I mean nuclear threat still exists and terrorism gives a whole new path to war. However, I guess screenwriter David Scarpa (The Last Castle) didn’t think Klaatu meeting with Osama bin Laden in a cave would be all that interesting, especially considering he would have to appear on a Al Jazeera television , which probably wouldn’t be in high-def. Nope, they are going a completely different route.
“The version I was just working on, instead of being man against man, it’s more about man against nature,” Reeves tells MTV. “My Klaatu says that if the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives. I’m a friend to the earth.” Uh, okay… and…
Reeves clarifies a little saying while humanity still engages in a staggering number of international conflicts, the environmental message is one that, not only encompasses wars, and fights, and terrorism, but one that goes beyond constrictions to become a millennial message of “what we are doing and who we are as a species… We’re trying to reach beyond the idea of [just] environmentalism.” I am not sure I entirely understand the angle they are going for and how it all ties in, but I remain interested.
Obviously the giant robot named Gort that accompanies Klaatu will be getting a major makeover considering the first one was hardly all that spectacular, but considering it was made in 1951 it’s pretty easy to cut them some slack.
Who knows if this Day the Earth Stood Still gone green anecdote will work… I just hope they don’t go for a whole bunch of character building crap and go straight to the guts of the story just as the original did. Within a few minutes an alien craft had landed and the world was terrified, and that’s called building tension. I don’t give two shits about Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) or her son Bobby, who I think will be played by Jaden Smith although IMDb has him listed as playing Jacob, which may be a name change… who knows? There is no need for a lot of character building with this story, what is needed is the realization that humans are stupid and killing themselves and an alien race observes it but humans are too stupid to listen until it just may be too late.
The original gives us a second chance to listen, I can only assume if that film went on 10 minutes longer it would have fast forwarded 100 years into the future only to see the Earth a smoldering mess. Who knows, in the remake maybe that’s exactly what will happen.
The Day the Earth Stood Still will be released by 20th Century Fox on December 12th.
