Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Keanu stars in "Day Earth Stood Still" remake, sadly




In 1951, when Michael Rennie embodied the alien Klaatu in Robert Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still he brought sensitivity and nuance to the role of a herald trying to understand humanity's better nature, while delivering a warning to governments not to take their appetite for war into space, or else face Earth's destruction from otherworldly forces.

Born out of the aftermath of atomic bombs dropped on Japan to end World War II and the start of the Cold War, the film stands as an iconic and prophetic protest against violence, politics, technology for the sake of waging war, and possible global annihilation over petty ideological conflicts. It is a message film whose message is still relevant today. Day is widely recognized one of the greatest science fiction films of all time, if not THE best (box office withstanding).

This week Twentieth Century Fox announced its plans to go The Invasion route and inflict another unnecessary and inferior update on moviegoers. For their remake of Day they have elected to totally miscast Keanu Reeves in the role of Klaatu, an actor capable of delivering as much depth and subtlety as IKEA furniture and who best sums up emotion with a dazed telegraphed "Whoa!" Perhaps Fox thinks classic means "not-franchisable-if-it's-not-in-color."

Let's us hope the studio hires a director gifted enough to overcome the limitations of its leading man, or at least the sense to convert Keanu's footage to CGI and animate over him. It could be that Fox is taking its cue from "Transformers," sinking the budget into special effects and betting that a really cool CGI robot Gort will be the true star.
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1 comment:

  1. Jeff2:02 PM

    Perhaps there'll be a clever rewrite that makes Keanu's character a stoic, mindless automaton, and the robot is the intelligent, charismatic savior of Earth.

    That's certainly the only way this turkey will fly!

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