Ghostbusters - Did you know it was actually a film in 1954 starring Bob Hope?

An excellent trailer mash-up. You have to watch it.

What if...Ghostbusters, the movie, was shot in 1954 instead of 1984? Who should be part of the cast? Would they have the same equipment? Who would they battle? Considering Dan Aykroyd's concept owes a lot to Bob Hope, Abbott and Costello, and Lewis and Martin comedies of the 40s and 50s, it is not that big of a stretch to speculate.

Here's the recipe for the trailer:

Ghostbusters, The Three Stooges, Scared Stiff, Ghost Breakers, Topper Takes a Trip, The Ghost Busters, Abbott and Costello meet the Invisible Man, Star Trek, Ghosts on the Loose, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Spooks Run Wild, Flubber, Son of Flubber, The Caddy, 100 ans d'histoires de Bibendum

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The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2008 - Movie Review - Lots of spoilers

Director: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Gort, Kathy Bates, Jennifer Connelly, Jaden Smith
Running Time: 103 minutes

This review by LoquaciousMuse (check out their blog here). I'm going to take my son to see it this weekend.

Saw The Day The Earth Stood Still last week. My thoughts still aren't fully formulated, but I wanted to get something down.

Let me begin by saying this isn't a bad movie. It's not horrible, not laughable, not the blight in the history of science fiction film that so many of us, especially fans of the original, were expecting. In fact, the first two thirds of it are actually pretty good. The film is enjoyable & interesting and comes frustratingly close to pulling off the impossible (properly modernizing a classic) but in the end, it just falls short.

***Minor Spoiler Alert***

What does this "remake" (I prefer reimagining in this case) have in common with the original? There is a woman, there is a boy, there is a (sort of) robot & there is an alien. Alien & Robot land on Earth. Robot reacts immediately to violence with retaliatory violence. Alien is taken away by government for questioning. Alien escapes. Alien represents the universe & has a message for the Earth...sort of. Woman & Boy end up knowing Alien better than any other human knows him. There is a Dr. Barnhardt that speaks with Alien. Alien leaves planet at end of film.

And that's it. May seem like a lot...but let me tell you...it isn't. There are some nice homages to the original that made me smile (you'll know them when you see 'em) but overall it was very much a different film that might have definitely would have made more sense had it been approached as a sequel rather than a remake. But if we get into the ridiculousness surrounding unecessary remake versus appropriate sequel we'll be here all day. Let me just point out that the original ends with Klaatu SAYING HE WILL COME BACK AND EFF US IF WE DON'T CLEAN UP OUR ACT (but in that charming classically trained British actor way) and oh hey, look at that, we're still blowing each other up. A sequel set in real time, 57 years later would have been amazing. Muh. Anyway.

There are a lot of big changes. Besides what we all could have predicted - get to know fleshed out Woman & Boy early on, Klaatu sort of has powers, bigger fx, a more destructive Gort - the film goes further than the obvious. The big changes are Klaatu's reason for being here, why he looks human, a certain huge decision he makes that only he can undo and the state of the Earth when he leaves.

***BIG SPOILER ALERT***

(To elaborate, Woman isn't a secretary. She's a scientist. And she doesn't have a swell gentleman caller. She has a dead husband & a stepson who likes to give her a hard time, but really, he loves her. Hrmm. Klaatu controls electric currents. That way he can fuck shit up AND un-fuck shit up. Plus Gort can dissolve into rapidly multiplying silver bugs that destroy everything they touch. Klaatu came to Earth because humans are destroying it and if they can never change (which he deduces they can't), they must be wiped out. Process to wipe them out begins. He sees Woman & Boy hugging & crying and realizes humans aren't all bad and wants to save them. Unfortunately there is a cost. He stops the death of all people by...doing something involving his spaceship. All electricity stops as he leaves. Humans are left to start over again. We think. It's unclear.)

***END OF BIG SPOILERS***

***Minor Spoiler Alert. Again.***

Overall, the new ideas introduced are pretty cool and the updates to the classic material works. Where the film fails is the last third or so. All of a sudden it starts going in a direction that just doesn't make sense. The big disappointment for me was WHY CANT HE STOP GORT BY SAYING KLAATU BARADA NIKTO (even though I could have SWORN I heard him say it at the beginning) ???? And why that one random rushed death? And why did it remain a death when the alien next to you can bring people back to life with his electrical current power? WHY NOT stick to the original structure? Was the ending not Hollywood enough? I thought the ending to the original was perfect. Relevant, harrowing, horrifying, and an important warning - it had so much of an impact because Klaatu's reason for being there isn't revealed until the very end. In this film, that is scratched for a big exercise in fx, followed immediately an ending so abrupt and anticlimactic, that the audience is left utterly unsatisfied and with A LOT of questions.

As for the performances - the casting was pretty right on. Half the time Jennifer Connolly was on screen I was just plain in awe of her. Terrific actress and mindbogglingly gorgeous. Are we sure she's real? Jayden Smith can cry on cue and is pretty cute, so I'll let that one slide. Jon Hamm is a perfect human being. John Cleese, though only in one scene, was an inspired choice for Barnhardt. And Keanu. At first I was unsettled by this choice in casting as Michael Rennie was so charming & delightful in his icy, unearthly ways. Keanu's Klaatu (band name anyone? maybe? no? okay.) is cold & kinda hostile, more or less the stark opposite of Rennie's take. But considering how this film differs from the original, it works. He speaks in non emotional, Vulcan-like tones (I've been watching a lot of Trek: TOS lately to educate myself), making sure to hit every word carefully. The easiest acting role of all time? Maybe. But easy looks good on Keanu.

This film ends up being mostly about the beauty of humanity and how we are worth it, despite all our flaws. And you know, it could have been so powerful. This film COULD have been beautiful and it frustrates me all the more because it came so close, only to give up two thirds of the way through...and here and there before the final third, but we won't get into that now.

All I can say is please go see it so we can talk about it, both what we liked and what made us crazy. Still having trouble figuring out how I feel about it all and would love to hear some opinions!

This is an update I added to my blog post on the subject.
UPDATE:

Found an article on the changes made for the remake here. Pretty illuminating stuff actually. Here's the bit about Klaatu Barada Nikto

"One crucial element that made the 57-year jump from the 1951 version to the 2008 remake was the iconic line "Klatuu Barad Nikto" - the alien command that prevents the unstoppable robot Gort from unleashing destruction upon Earth. Actor Reeves stated that he was surprised not to find that line in the script when he first read it, but he and the director ensured that it made it into the final film (although it's during a loud scene where some viewers may miss it). To enhance the impact, several techniques were used, including having Reeves memorize and pronounce the words backwards, which were then reversed to put them in the right order. The final mix overlays this upon double-reverse upon a take of Reeves reading the line in the usual order. (UPDATE: Although the line is in the film, it is buried in the mix beneath a ton of sound effects: to a casual viewer it may be apparent that the alien Klaatu is speaking in his native language to Gort; only fans will recognize, just barely, the specific words.)"

So I did hear it mixed in at the beginning! Listen for yourself after Klaatu first gets off the ship & had to stop Gort. Though still doesn't explain why he can't say it later to stop Gort...

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Trailer for the new Terminator Salvation Trailer - that sentence does make sense!

First Showing have the news that Entertainment Tonight will debut the brand new Terminator Salvation trailer next Tuesday and it will also show in theaters in front of The Day the Earth Stood Still. They also have some footage of the trailer. There is quite a bit of new footage and a cool scene right at the end.

What do you make of all that then?
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Will Keanu be back for The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down 3

"I saw this in a movie about a bus that had to speed around the city, keeping its speed over fifty, and if its speed dropped, the bus would explode! I think it was called "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down." - Homer Simpson.

AICN have a source who has confirmed that a script for Speed 3 is floating around Hollywood. Not only that, but the story features the return of Officer Jack Traven, the lead character played by Keanu Reeves in the original film. Speed 2: Cruise Control had Jason Patric as a different character for the lead, but both features Sandra Bullock.

The weird thing is that back in 2007, Dennis Hopper told The Guardian that he was set to reprise his role as Howard Payne in a third Speed film. This always seemed a bit odd as Payne died at the end of the first Speed film.

All still early days for this rumour and I think it is doubtful that Keanu will return to the franchise. He's riding high with The Day the Earth Stood Still and a Chef type movie with David Fincher in the works.

Would you like to see Keanu back in a new Speed movie? Let's hear your theories as to what would be speeding now and how they could bring Dennis Hopper's character back (maybe in a Saw style with videos he made back in the day - they could carefully edit footage of Hopper from many of his earlier films. That would be cool).

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UPDATED: Wolverine on the cover of Empire. Trailer before The Day the Earth Stood Still

Empire has debuted the latest cover of the next issue of their magazine. On the cover this time is Hugh Jackman as Wolverine from the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The first trailer will be on before The Day the Earth Stood Still on December 12th (probably only in the States) which means we'll have a lot more to look at by then. In addition to that quote that Jackman gave above, actor Danny Huston had this to say about his role as the character William Stryker (who Brian Cox played in X2, X-Men 2).

"The thing about Stryker is that he feels like he's got this God-given right, that he's on a crusade. He both loves and hates mutants, because his son was a mutant and murdered his wife. So he understands what they're going through but despises their force, their potential danger."

Huston tells Empire. "In Logan and Creed, Stryker finds his children and hones their powers like racehorses. But as in the world of horseracing, when your horse breaks his leg and is suddenly useless, he has a very cold way of looking at them. And he's also a mad scientist excited by the possibilities of what he can do to mutants."

Hugh Jackman had this to say about the film, "There's a scene in the first X-Men movie where Wolverine's introduced in a bar, fighting in a cage, and you felt that he did this every night of his life. If this movie is successful, you should feel that this guy can walk straight off the end of this film and into that bar."
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is directed by South African filmmaker Gavin Hood,(Tsotsi, Rendition). The script was written by veteran screenwriter David Benioff (25th Hour, Troy, The Kite Runner). X-Men Origins: Wolverine will be out next Summer.

I had posted the trailer when shown at this years Comic Con, but they've since been taken down. However, I did post a description of the trailer a few months ago and that can be found here.

What do you think of the Empire cover? Are you looking forward to seeing Logan on the big screen?
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Visit to the set of The Day the Earth Stood Still

Ammon of JoBlo was lucky enough to have a visit to the production offices and set of The Day The Earth Stood Still remake.

Among other things he got to have a look at lots of productions sketches and photos and he had a chat with production designer David Brisbin, special effects team Jeff Okun and Tom Boland, and practical effects maestro Todd Masters (of MastersFX). Here are some cool things about the film he found out (spoilers ahead

- The space ship is an Orb--and there are multiple Orbs that land in different locations all around the globe, including the desert, the ocean, the swamp, and the forest--each Orb has a different purpose.
- The Orbs change color, based on Klaatu’s mood--when angry, the Orb is red, when calm, the Orb is blue.
- The Orbs arrive throughout different times in history--we are shown the arrivals of the Orbs throughout time before the arrival in Central Park.
- Helen (Jennifer Connolly) is an Ethnobiologist (and not a lonely housewife) in this version.
- The film is environmentally conscience--Klaatu comes to Earth to warn us to stop polluting and take better care of our planet (instead of warning us to stop using Atomic Weapons).
- The color palette director Derrickson wanted to use for the film’s overall pallet featured lots of blues and greens--similar to the colors of the original's theatrical poster (below).
- WETA is doing most of the post-production special effects.
- There are HUNDREDS of special effects shots.
- Derrickson believes that when it comes to effects, if you can shoot it, you should.
- There are a few stages to Klaatu’s organic space suite: the first stage, the suite is translucent; the second stage, the suite is solid; the third stage, you can see the inner being inside the suite; the fourth stage is the dissection of the suit; the final stage is the transition stage, when Klaatu (looking like Keanu) emerges.
- The transformation scene when Klaatu turns into a human--is shot in a similar manner as the werewolf transformation in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.
- Gort is somewhere between 25 and 35 feet tall.

He was then shown a rough of the opening scene and described it as:

The Orb approaches through space (like the landing of PREDATOR), and slowly floats down in the middle of New York City’s Central Park. Shortly after ‘landing’ (it’s floating a few feet off the ground, as it’s a giant ball of light and energy), the Orb is surrounded by police and military units--all approaching with guns drawn, taking aim and ready to fire. Snipers arrive on the rooftops of the buildings surrounding Central Park, taking aim and putting the Orb in their crosshairs. The light of the Orb narrows and focuses at the base, where a humanoid figure of light emerges, walking towards the surrounding barricade. This is Klaatu, in his translucent space suite. Helen (the Ethnobiologist, rocking a full body de-tox suite) is the first one to greet Klaatu as he emerges. A second later, a random shot by a trigger happy gunman is heard, and Klaatu is hit in the chest – blood splatters all over the front of Helen’s suite and across her face shield. Helen stands there in shock for a second, then the stomping sound of screeching metal and robotic footsteps comes from within the Orb and a shadow emerges…

All sounds pretty cool and I am now definitely looking forward to seeing this film when it comes out. I do like the idea of the orbs appearing throughout different time periods although I'm not sure how that is going to work in the story. Very intriguing. Also looks as if we will get to see a giant Gort kick some military ass. Who's with me?

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Avatar Teaser Trailer? It could be on the way...maybe

MarketSaw had this photo which apparantly shows the teaser trailer for James Cameron's Avatar sitting ready in their boxes. At 3:57 it does seem awfully long for a teaser so these may well be fake.

If it's real I'm not sure what film the teaser may debut on. Maybe The Day the Earth Stood Still, or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, maybe Monsters vs Aliens as that's a 3D CGI film. What is your opinion on the photo? Real or bogus? If real what film could it be show with?
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The Day the Earth Stood Still - Latest Poster

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Here's Gort - New The Day the Earth Stood Still Trailer

Wow! Just Wow! Can't wait to see it. Gort looks amazing.

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Why remake it? Jaden Smith to be The Karate Kid

Why oh Why oh Why Hollywood! Some remakes I can understand, but this just doesn't need to be done at all. The one starring whatsherface, Hilary Swank, was a big pile of (rhymes with Swank) and now this sounds crapola.

Variety confirms that Jaden will star in a “refashioned” remake of the 1980’s classic, The Karate Kid. Want more naffness, the film will be set in an exotic locale, with a shoot planned for next year in Beijing. Chris Murphy’s screenplay is said to “borrow elements” from the original film, and is not a strict remake.

Jaden, an avid practitioner of karate, made his big screen debut as Will Smith’s son, which must have been hard to act, in Pursuit of Happyness. He can be seen next in The Day the Earth Stood Still. No word on if Stephen Chow will be involved as was originally rumoured (he was meant to be Mr Miyagi). He will be busy with The Green Hornet.

For this rumour I hope it gets wiped off! See what I did there? I look forward to Chisholm's thoughts on this remake news.

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2 new The Day the Earth Stood Still TV Spots

"Your Planet?" Looks pretty cool and Gort is huge. What do you think of them?
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Holy Gort! We finally get to see him - The Day the Earth Stood Still 5 minute trailer

Finally we get a glimpse of the new version of Gort. What do you think of him? He looks pretty cool in my opinion. What do you think of the trailer

'The Day the Earth Stood Still' 5 Minute Trailer @ Yahoo!7 Video

Empire magazine also have 4 exclusive new photos from the film. One of which I posted back on the 17th October so not really that exclusive. Still the others are okay.

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The Day The Earth Stood Still - 2 new photos and Keanu has insisted that the Klaatu line will remain

Here are a couple of new photos from the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still. They are from The Electric New Paper over in Singapore (I personally feel the top one is a poor photo shop jobby and apparantly the source is a tabloid over in Singapore so take all of this with a pinch of salt). They go on to mention some details of the filming including how a mound of earth was going to double for Gort. Keanu has also said, "[Klaatu Barada Nikto] was actually something that wasn't in the script. And I said, 'You've got to have that."

Although most of the film was shot in Vancouver, Canada, the production spent nine days at Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base and the studio took advantage of its airfield and equipment.

More than 150 people, including actors and crew members, set up camp there during filming.

Part of the base's hangar was converted into a military control room and the crew borrowed two Blackhawk helicopters while on location.

A towering mound of dirt was dumped near the airstrip that will be digitally manipulated to become an alien in the movie.

Weta Digital will be using computer animation to fill the major role of Klaatu's giant robot counterpart Gort.

Derrickson explored many possibilities for depicting the character, but realised making a faithful homage to the original was best. One script draft had depicted the robot as a four-legged 'Totem' that stands upright after firing its weapon beam.

Like Gort's design, the spaceship and Klaatu's spacesuit will also have an organic and biological or ecological base.

The original film's electronic score, which was composed by Bernard Herrmann, has been re-composed by Tyler Bates and used for the remake.

What do you think of the news and the photos?

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German Poster for The Day the Earth Stood Still

I saw this over on First Showing. Looks pretty cool and I am curious as to what the remake will be like. It's due out on 12th December this year. Wonder when we'll get a proper look at Gort? What do you think of the new poster?

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What's going on with X-Men Origins: Magneto?

MTV spoke to character designer Aaron Sims about the other X-Men origin movie that isn't Wolverine.

“Unfortunately, because of the writers strike, it got pushed off,” Sims said. “But they’re now back to the rewrites.”

Since “X Men Origins: Magneto” is still in conceptual form, it’s too soon to say much about it, except that obviously, like Wolverine, it will be an origin story — “where he started, where he got his powers, the very beginning.”

“Remember the scene [from 'X-Men'] in the concentration camp where you see Magneto as a young boy? It just continues from there,” Sims said. “Some people thought that might be too dark, but I really like that. It’s a lot of death and mayhem.”

Magneto won’t be the only mutant — just like in “Wolverine”, there will be new mutants aplenty to keep Sims busy coming up with something to please and yet surprise the fans. “The fan base has a vision of what they should look like, and that’s always the challenge,” Sims said. “It was the same with ‘The Hulk.’”

But since director David Goyer is still finishing “The Unborn” and also has several other movies on his plate (from “The Invisible Man” to “Super Max” to “”), Sims doesn’t have to realize his character designs too quickly, which is a good thing, since he’s also in the middle of designs for “The Invisible Man,” “The Clash of the Titans,” “Paradise Lost,” and “Green Lantern” — for which he did the suit and Kilowog. (This, after finishing matte paintings for “The Spirit” and designs for the robot and the spaceship in “The Day The Earth Stood Still”).

“David’s like me,” Sims laughed. “He works nonstop. He’s not one of those kinds of writers or directors who ever stops. I’m surprised he has any time at all. But I’m fortunate to work with directors like him who I admire. I can’t say no to him.”

I think if they stick to their guns and try and keep it serious then the Magneto movie could be quite the epic. What do you think? Better than the forthcoming Wolverine movie?

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The Day The Earth Stood Still remake - 7 minutes of footage

This is 7 minutes of footage that was originally shown at the recent Comic Con and then shown over in the States during the new series, Fringe. I am liking the look of the thing (I'm a big fan of the original) and Keanu is never quite as bad as critics make out. Still looking for a clearer image of what this Gort will look like. What do you think of this new footage? Are you looking forward to this remake or do you think it should have been left well alone?

The Day the Earth Stood Still is directed by up-and-coming director Scott Derrickson, of only The Exorcism of Emily Rose previously, with a script written by screenwriter David Scarpa, of only The Last Castle previously. There are a lot of fresh creative minds involved in this project who haven't yet had a lot of experience. The film is a remake of Robert Wise's 1951 sci-fi classic of the same name. Fox is releasing the re-imagined The Day the Earth Stood Still on December 12th later this year.

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The Day the Earth Stood Still - New Photos

Here are some new photos from the Keanu remake. Think it's showing more of the ship and maybe Gort if my previous theory is correct.

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Are Gort, the Galactus Cloud and the Totem one and the same?

Gort is the big discussion point in The Day the Earth Stood Still remake. Will he be like the original? Will he look like a dog robot thing? Will it look like the Cylon inspired concept art that was featured a while ago on this site? Will it be a balloon like the Prisoner's Rover? (I made the last one up). The filmakers had mentioned something called Totem which would be a dog kind of thing, but then the director Scott Derrickson said they were going with the original design.

However, I put it to you gentle reader that Gort may well be the original, a dog shaped thing and the Galactus cloud that we see in the trailer. Stick with me on this one. It's late and I'm probably talking crap.

Okay, the trailer is just below for you to check these things out. In the original movie Gort was going to destroy the planet if he wasn't given the words "Klaatu Barada Nikto". Well, the trailer shows a cloud ripping up sport stadiums and the like. Now either this is a cloud that doesn't like sport or could it be a shape shifting Gort taking out the planet in order to save his master, Theodore Logan Esq? At the very end of the trailer we see a glimpse of an original looking Gort blasting fire from his visor, so that's the original look. As for the dog like alien Totem robot thing, well I'm not too sure but round about 1:11 in the trailer when the Haz Mat suited scientists are in the misty woods you see something big moving from the middle of the screen to the right. It has sticky out bits and looks nasty. It's only there for a second. Have a look.

So three separate things that could all be one and the same. Just a theory at this point, but maybe, just maybe there could be something in it. What do you think?

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The Day the Earth Stood Still - Poster

I love the imagery in this poster. Seems rather old school and reminds me of something, but not sure what. Maybe Samurai Jack or something similar. The Day the Earth Stood Still is still one of my all time favourites.

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Gort 2.0 Update - Looks like a Cylon

Is it going to be a dog called Totem, is it riffing on the original, is it a cylon? These are some of the questions floating around cyberspace.

There could be an answer on Lorin Woods website. This picture can be found there:

Director Scott Derrickson has now said the robot will be similar to the original and Lorin Woods is apparantly working on the movie as well. Is this the shape of things to come?