Someone dust off Robbie the Robot — The Hollywood Reporter reports that Thor and upcoming Brave & the Bold writer J. Michael Straczynski is working on the screenplay for a remake of Forbidden Planet for Warner Bros. Joel Silver is producing.
Per the trade:
Warners picked up the project on the down-low earlier this year. As late as last year, it was set up at DreamWorks with David Twohy attached to direct. Prior to that, New Line had it. James Cameron, Nelson Gidding and Stirling Silliphant have been associated with the remake over the years.
Released in 1956, “Planet” told the tale of an expedition sent from Earth to check on a colony of scientists on a far-off planet. They find two members, a man who has found alien technology that doubled his intellect, Dr. Morbius, and his daughter, both of whom have managed to survive an unseen monster roaming the planet.
Straczynski, who created Babylon 5, also wrote Changeling, which is in theaters now.
October 31st, 2008 at 8:51 am
Awesome! I freaking love that movie and, as many of the visual references in B5 showed, so does JMS. I normally cringe at classics being remade (and all the Day the Earth Stood Still trailers have done nothing but confirm this reaction) but with someone as talented as Straczynski working on this, who loves the original to boot, this has the potential to be a great remake.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:00 am
This could be very cool, but I’d have to say 80% of the appeal of the first one is Robbie the Robot and Leslie Nielsen, so it’s hard to judge how a remake might play out (anybody remember the 90s’ version of Lost In Space?)
October 31st, 2008 at 9:18 am
Sorry, this has got to go in the “Why?” column. With all the wonderful ideas bouncing around in science-fiction alone, I am ever amazed that the best one Hollywood can think up is “Let’s do this movie over!”
Of course, I could draw attention that Forbidden is itself a remake (of Shakespere’s The Tempest) but that’s just showing off.
JMS should get back to working on the Lensmen script, and leave the remakes to people who can’t construct new ideas.
Seriously. I want Lensmen.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:36 am
Creatures from the id!
Love the original, not a fan of a remake. And, oddly, in spite of having seen The Tempest, never connected the dots. Sometimes I’m an idiot. Thanks Vinnie.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:58 am
Rich, it’s Monsters from the ID.
I have mixed feelings on this one.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:16 am
I’m not normally big on remakes either (the new Day the Earth Stood Still looks…let’s say not terribly promising), but the combination of classic sci-fi and JMS means I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:31 am
Not to disrespect JMS for this, but why does this movie need a remake? Any movie, for that matter?
Can’t anyone come up with an original idea these days?
October 31st, 2008 at 10:36 am
I love the “to written” typo on Newsarama’s main page link to this article.
“JMS to written Forbidden Planet remake: ‘Where’s the beef?’”
October 31st, 2008 at 11:30 am
Please, not a remake of this masterpiece! The remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still is already an heresy!
October 31st, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Well, I don’t think they need to remake this either but I’ll probably still check it out when they do.
I’m with Vinnie in that I’d much prefer he get busy on Lensmen. That would be so much cooler.
October 31st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I can’t think of better hands for this project to fall into! While a great film, the original now is sorely dated. It’s still a great film, but also a product of its times. With JMS doing the writing, the remake has a chance of forging its own place in film history!
October 31st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I think a remake would be okay. I believe that the original was also based on a novel which was reprinted several times in the 1960s and 70s. The film whiplashes back and forth from serious SF to sci-fi silliness and I question whether the “humorous” scenes in it were even funny in the 1950s. I’ve always felt the film was interesting but flawed as the comedy relief spoiled the tone and atmosphere so that whenever someone died it seemed to clash with other scenes in the film. There’s also the still noticeable problem of the special effects being inconsistent because one studio was fired before the film was over and another finished the FX. I thought using a flying saucer as the Earth ship was an imaginative idea which departed from all other 1950s SF. Robby the Robot was an interesting character often wasted in scenes done solely for comedic effect. The best scene in the film is the Krell underworld which left the viewer wanting to see more.
October 31st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Roy: That about sums up my day. Sigh.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:48 pm
You’ve got that backwards, Jim… the novel in this case was an adaptation of the movie, written by WJ Stuart. It’s not bad, as far as adaptions go, though it’s not the job that Alan Dean Foster would have done.
I’m afraid I must also respectfully disagree on the ‘dated’ aspect. I grant you, SFX have improved by several orders of magnitude, but the thing /was/ made fifty years ago, and given that, the effects hold up rather well, I think. I really don’t see the point to remaking this classic… there are lots of new things to make movies about, why waste the time on remaking one of the seminal works of the genre? I will concede that if anyone could do it, JMS is one of those someones.
I also have to agree with those who have called the ‘Day the Earth Stood Still’ remake a heresy. Keanu Reeves is no Michael Rennie, and honestly, despite being in black and white, and despite the nature of the optical effects that movie is pretty close to perfect as it is.
In particular, I’d love to have met the set designer. Instead of a spacecraft interior that looked like a pile of surplus WWII short wave gear, we got an interior that looked modern and alien – and STILL looks modern and alien, after nearly sixty years. That’s /impressive/ design. Simply brilliant.
-Cin
November 2nd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Ugh. I hate Hollywood remakes in nearly every case.