Friday, February 23, 2007

The Earth stands still again


From Darkhorizons, "The 1950s spawned many notable sci-fi classics with several of them, notably "The Time Machine" and "War of the Worlds", having been remade. Others however are still in the works like "When Worlds Collide", yet arguably the most famous one has remain hereto untouched - until now.1951's "The Day the Earth Stood Still" tells of a humanoid alien who comes to Earth to warn its leaders not to take their conflicts into space, or they will face lethal consequences. A demonstration of his resolve is that all electrical power on Earth is suspended for half an hour. Whilst the giant robot Gort, the silver alien spaceship, and even the saying "Klaatu barada nikto" have become cemented in popular culture, the film still stands as one of the more acclaimed and provocative pics of the era with underlying themes of religious symbolism, paranoia and an underlying message of piece combined with a dark and cynical take on human society.Now, Boxoffice Mojo reports that 20th Century Fox has staked out May 9th of next year for release of a remake of the project. One posting is hardly conclusive even though BOM is very reliable, but the report was then confirmed by Fox to FirstShowing.net.From the sounds of it though this is purely concept stage for now as no-one is attached, but one wonders can the remake resonate in modern times as much as the original? It'll be tough."

2 comments:

Octopunk said...

I refer you to Jordan's excellent comment on my Thing from Another World review:

I got The Day The Earth Stood Still a little while ago, and I've plodded my way through it increment by increment over the last month or so. It's a classic, yes...but, Jesus Christ, put some effort into it, guys, can't you? It's like a Twilight Zone episode (a bad Twilight Zone episode) in that, yes, they spent some money on the flying saucer and the giant robot, but the alien is a GUY IN A BUSINESS SUIT having CONVERSATIONS in VERY SMALL ROOMS with ONE OR TWO PEOPLE. Here's the most important fucking thing to happen since the discovery of fire and it's a bureaucratic procedural: "I'm afraid I cannot allow you to leave the premises." "I'm afraid I must insist." "I have conveyed your message to the President." "I await his reply." "I shall inform the nurse of your request." "Goodbye Mr. Milstrom" etc. etc. etc. Give me a fucking break. (Then he checks into a boarding house, where he blends in. Suddenly it's Shadow of a Doubt.)

What do you expect? It's Robert Wise. Mr. Boring. Andromeda Strain Robert Wise; Star Trek The Motion Picture Robert Wise. I understand that it's a brilliant sad parable and all that, but still.

JPX said...

I just think the robot looks cool.

Kinda like Boba Fett.

Kinda.

Salem's Lot 1979 and Salem's Lot 2024

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