Keanu to Star in Day the Earth Stood Still! Why Does Hollywood Hate Us So Much?
Daniel Swensen
Quick quiz. What’s the only thing you could do that’s more ill-advised and bone-headed than remaking the Robert Wise classic The Day the Earth Stood Still? Cast the Duke of Ted as Klaatu!
Twentieth Century Fox has set Keanu Reeves to star in The Day the Earth Stood Still, its re-imagining of the 1951 Robert Wise-directed SF classic movie, Variety reported.
Reeves committed over the weekend to play Klaatu, a humanoid alien who arrives on Earth accompanied by an indestructible, heavily armed robot and a warning to world leaders that their continued aggression will lead to annihilation by species watching from afar.
Erwin Stoff is producing, with Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) directing from a script by David Scarpa. Reeves’ commitment puts the picture on track for a late fall or early 2008 production start.
The Klaatu role was originated by Michael Rennie. The 1951 film’s premise, a response to the rise of the Cold War after World War II, is being updated, and the film will use advances in visual effects.
This is the single most mind-boggling thing I’ve read since learning that Zack Snyder tried to get Reeves to play Dr. Manhattan in the Watchmen movie. Granted, Reeves did fairly well in the Matrix films, in a role that never required him to emote or project; he could restrain himself to looking mildly confused and flying around on wires, two things he admittedly does very well. But unless we’ve dodged a massive bullet and Reeves will be playing a hapless Army grunt who gets disintegrated in the opening reel as a lesson to other numbskulls, we may be in for one of the lousiest remakes of all time.
According to rumor, this remake has already been canned once. If you have any love for the late, great Robert Wise, pray it gets canned again.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
You’re right about his role in the Matrix, he never really had to emote anything in those films. A fact which just might make him acceptable in the role of Klaatu. Klaatu should have a rather confused alienish feeling to him, something which Keanwoah is able to do all too well, intentionally or not.
I’m not saying that I approve of this news, but I’m trying to look at the silver lining. The very things which make Reeves an horrible actor might just make him be a fit for this role.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Well, the problem with Reeves as Klaatu is that Klaatu is supposed to be a super-genius by human standards — something Reeves is profoundly incapable of pulling off. If you watch the original DTESS, Klaatu was articulate, passionate, driven, and brilliant… all qualities Keanu lacks as an actor.
I’m anticipating some sort of horrible “tortured loner” angle for Keaklaatu, which will just be awful. I wish I could say I share your optimism, but I just can’t see it at the moment.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
But wasn’t he some sort of super genius in Johnny Pneumatic?
No, I can see your point. The thing is that I think this movie will be horrible no matter who directs it or who acts in it. I hope that I end up eating my words (’A Lord of the Rings movie? By the guy that did Dead Alive, that’ll fucking suck!) but maybe if Keanu can’t provide the otherworldlyness that Klaatu needs, he might be able to elevate the movie from merely bad to laughably bad.
August 27th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
I hope you’re right, too, Tyrell — or, in this case, wrong; I’d love to be as wrong about the Day remake as I was about Peter Jackson’s LOTR. What’s especially galling to me is that the message of DTESS is still very significant today — perhaps even more so, actually, than at the time of its initial release. As such, I think a remake could potentially be relevant, even good, under the right circumstances. But we’re not off to a hell of a start with “Keanu Reeves? He kicked lots of butt in the Matrix, put him in that Day the Earth Stood Still movie!”
August 27th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
He wasn’t bad in A Scanner Darkly although admittedly, he was playing a bit of a stoner (or a stoner pretending to be a cop pretending to be a stoner).
August 27th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
They are actively killing sci-fi as a genre.
Wow, I bet it will be ACTION PACKED unlike that long BORING original.
“Whoa! Like if you guys don’t stop it, I’m going to have to, uh, do stuff!”
August 27th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Maybe we’ll find out in this movie that Keanu can actually act. You know, like Brendan Fraser in Gods and Monsters.
I’m going to go throw up now.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:30 am
Line up for the Vomitorium right behind me. I’ll be right behind Matt and Dan.
August 28th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
I’m afraid I’m going to be wearing out quite a few vomitoria before I’m finished. For YEARS I’ve been trying to warn the world that Hollywood was trying to sell us Keanu as the Intelligent SF Hero of Choice. Nobody listened, of course. Probably I should have shut off all the electricity on Earth.
*BLAM*
August 28th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
The Vomitorium. A brilliant idea born out of a terrible casting decision. Bless you, Keanu. Bless you.