Dan Meth put together this brilliant chart putting futuristic films into their chronological order. He should have put Star Wars on A long time ago, but apart from that he seems to have got all the major movies.
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.
MTV have this - “It’s my favorite science-fiction film of all time. I’ve watched the rights go from one company to the next. I heard that the rights at Dreamworks were about to expire and I went to Joel Silver and said I think if you move quickly you can grab it and I can write it. And he did. It’s the dream of a lifetime to play in that universe.” Straczynski — whose stock in Hollywood as a scriptwriter just enjoyed a major bump thanks to the success of director Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” — was happy to hint at what fans of the original “Forbidden Planet” can expect from his take.
“I told [producer] Joel [Silver] this is how you do ‘Forbidden Planet’ without pissing on the original that no one has ever thought of,” said Straczynski. “When I told [the idea] to him, his eyes lit up. It’s not a remake. It’s not a reimagining. It’s not exactly a prequel. You’ll have to see it. It’s something that no one has thought of when it comes to this storyline.”
Straczynski will be paying close attention to detail, with the writer revealing conversations he’s had to ensure the film is as scientifically attuned as possible. “[When coming] up with the Krell backstory and who they are, I sat down with some of the nation’s best minds in astrophysics and planetary geology and A.I. and asked them — based on what we know now — what will a million years from now look like? The goal is to put things in there you’ve never seen before.”
As for the 1954 film’s retro look, audiences can expect an updated vision that keeps the original’s iconic nature in mind. “At the time it was made it was cutting edge,” Straczynski explained. “They weren’t trying to be ‘retro’ — they thought they were right on the cutting edge. People that went to see that film saw things they had never seen before. What we have to do now is have this one be as innovative now as the original was then. It doesn’t mean we should look backwards.”
Following the recent Hollywood trend to take a classic and remake it for today's audience (The Day the Earth Stood Still) it looks as if Forbidden Planet is next.
Warner Bros have hired J. Michael Straczynski to write the remake of Forbidden Planet. The original saw a group of Earth scientists who are sent some 17 light years away to investigate what happened to a colony of settlers on Altair-4. They find a man with a secret and his daughter who somehow survived a hideous monster attack on their planet.
Loosely based on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the movie was nominated for best special effects Oscar, and was noted for its groundbreaking use of an all-electronic score, and the first appearances of Robby the Robot and the C-57D starship. The movie’s poster was listed as the fifth best Movie Poster ever created by Premiere Magazine.
Forbidden Planet is one of my all time favourite films. It just works so well for so many reasons - great effects, brilliant story, Robby the Robot, Leslie Nielson with brown hair, Walter Pidgeon being all frosty and mad scientist as Dr Morbius, Anne Francis playing with tigers, Creatures from the ID, the vast underground city of the Krells, and the bit where you see the invisible beastie's footsteps in the sand as it approaches the ship while the electro theromin music works its magic. It is just excellent. Go watch it. Go now. Do it.
When I watched it with my son (he was 8 at the time) he explained to me how, because the spacemen were travelling at the speed of light, time would move slower for them than it would for the people on Earth. Quite a big concept for an 8 year old and it made me proud. He also loved the film and thought Robby was cool.
However, I'm not sure if this film should be remade. There is just no need and I'm not sure if a remake could add anything new to the mix. Although if you look at it as a work based on Shakespeare then a remake is not that unusual as the Bard's tales have been doing the rounds in all forms forever. What do you think of the news?
