Forbidden Planet news - Could be a trilogy and changes what we know about characters from the original

I mentioned a few days ago that James Cameron was interested in directing the Forbidden Planet film that had been written by J Michael Straczynski. Apparantly Cameron loves the script.

Latino Review have found out some more info about the film. Looks as if Straczynski's script will definitely be a prequel to the 1956 original and he is planning to make it the beginning of a trilogy. It also looks as if his script keeps the original film in it's place but changes the motivation of one of the main characters so gives us all a reason to re-watch the original under a whole new light which sounds pretty cool.

Here's more from Latino Review about the set up to the prequel and the trilogy. Sounds amazing.  

According to sources, the prologue to the script contains the following: Two ships traveled to Altair 4, a planet orbiting a star 16.7 light years from Earth. The first ship, the Bellerophon, came to explore that world. The humans on board encountered the relics of the Krell civilization for the first time and exhumed their dangerous past. The Bellerophon was never heard from again. Twenty years later, a second ship, a C-57D Starcruiser, came to investigate the dissapearance of the Bellerophon and her crew.

The original 1956 Forbidden Planet told the tale of the second ship. What Straczynski's draft is about is the never-before revealed tale of the first ship, the Bellerophon.

Sources also tell me the last page contains a epilogue where depending on the financial reaction to Forbidden Planet, Straczynski could create the following three film franchise.

Movie One tells the story of the original ship that came to Altair 4.

Movie Two tells the story of the search for the Krell by the captain of the Bellerophon and his crew...as Diana continues to grow into something profoundly other-wordly. The search takes them beyond the limits of known space into other dimensions, passing from what's known into what's not.

Movie Three tells the story of the second ship to arrive at Altair 4 to investigate what happened to the Bellerophon. They discover Morbius and his "daughter," who is desperate to get off the planet and out into the rest of the universe, where her power would nearly be god-like...a fate we are spared when Morbius sacrifices his life to keep her there and eliminate the Krell homeworld once and for all.

Straczynski personally states in the last paragraph that what is cool about this new movie is that events shown completely change the meaning of the original Forbidden Planet without changing a frame of film. Altaira's attempt to seduce or inveigle the crew comes across as manipulative, using them to get off the planet. Straczynski also states that this has value to geeks of which he is one.

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