With mankind’s first uncertain steps into the atomic age comes a warning from beyond the stars: cease your fighting and your wars or you will be destroyed. “The decision rests with you,” Klaatu says by way of farewell at the end of “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” a classic of Cold War science-fiction from 1951.
Fifty years later and Klaatu has a new message for humanity, but one with equally dire consequences should we choose to ignore it, Keanu Reeves, who is playing the alien in Scott Derrickson’s upcoming remake, told MTV News.
“The first one was borne out of the cold war and nuclear détente. Klaatu came and was saying cease and desist with your violence. If you can’t do it yourselves we’re going to do it. That was the film of that day,” Reeves explained. “The version I was just working on, instead of being man against man, it’s more about man against nature. My Klaatu says that if the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives. I’m a friend to the earth.”
While humanity still engages in a staggering number of international conflicts, the environmental message is one that, not only encompasses wars, and fights, and terrorism, but one that goes beyond constrictions to become a millennial message of “what we are doing and who we are as a species,” Reeves insisted. “We’re trying to reach beyond the idea of [just] environmentalism.”
Among the other changes in the film, none may be more radical than Gort, Klaatu’s robot companion (or leader in some versions), that, let’s face it, looked like the tin-man in 1951. FX should change that, right?
“Hey man, don’t put that tin man down! That was iconoclastic!” Reeves protested. “[But] yes, we have another version of the [robot].”
One thing that won’t change? According to Reeves, he still says the immortal words, “Klaatu barada nikto.”
How does “The Day the Earth Stood Still” speak to you? What do you make of the new Earth friendly message? Sound off below.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:41 am
This movie is already headed for a “Razzie” with it’s unwarranted Political Correctness.
Enjoy your first bomb, Keanu.
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
excuse me - Keanu’s “first” bomb? clearly you’ve missed the majority of his career.
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 am
I think it’s great!!! We are living in a different era…they have to bring a different message from the 1950’s of DTESS…it’s just common sense, and the meaning will reach us deeper. Thanks to Keanu!!! Love you lots!!!!
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:32 am
Amazingly, it couldn’t come at a better time. With the ‘peak oil’ crisis, the ‘global warming’ issues, the wheat blight, bird flu, drought in the SW, dollar collapse/housing eating up our fields, ethanol debate, AND MORE… Klaatu has his work cut out for him. (Sorry, K, but the Cold War is making a comeback - watch Russia in the news.) I just hope I’m not disappointed by an understated message in the end.
But with the cast that it has, modern technological advances in cinematography and digital animation capabilities, this should be a far cry from the original. We go to the theatre once a year, and this is our slated 2007 movie.
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
seems like an appropriate update to the original film, i’m interested. Keanu is the man.
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Do you really believe that 20th Century Fox would make a political movie? Maybe a pro Bush one but not a critical one.
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:54 pm
It’s amazing that someone is willing to take one of the first pioneering science-fiction movies and turn it, in the cheapest pornographic way, into a propaganda tool of the dumbest ideological fad of this decade. If I were a kid of the original creators, I would demand the execution of those who are humiliating the work of my parent in such a dramatic way.
Klaatu will look much like Al Gore - they could hire the loser as an actor, to make it really “good”. So one more thing changes from 1951: I hope that the humanity will eventually use all of its Hydrogen bombs and other weapons to get rid of this now-disgraceful Klaatu.
God bless us.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I apologize for a mistake in my text above that was fixed thanks to Anthony Watts.
Gore should of course play Gort, not Klaatu.
That seems as a somewhat radical change from the old Gort but not too radical.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
If Hollywood wants to make a different message then why not just write and film a different movie? Why piggy-back on the success of a true classic? People like myself why remember and love the original will not bother to spend our money on a second-rate Klaatu. People who have never seen the original won’t care if the title is The Day The Earth Stood Still or Aliens Love Al Gore.
Hollywood is truly creatively destitute.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Give it up Hollywoood. The people have spoken; we don’t want to see your propaganda films. We’d rather be entertained, not preached to. Take your socialist idea’s and move to Europe.
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
The hubris of we humans. I believe, and history will most certainly bare this out, that Hollywood has entered into something of an “dark age” or an intellectual meltdown, if you will. Sad but highly probable.
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Fox made “The Day After Tomorrow”, the global warming/freeze movie that came out during the 2004 election cycle, so Rupert doesn’t really care what his movies plot points are, as long as they make money (which “TDAT” didn’t, though DVD sales may have perked up the final bottom line for News Corp. on that movie).
The bad part about this for Al Gore is everyone’s going to be calling him “Klaatu” once the PR about the movie’s new plot line really gets going.
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I’m looking for to “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. The original was good but the updated movie should be as good or better.
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:29 am
Hollywood can do no better than remake classics and remake Asian movies with English speaking casts, or spew out propaganda digestible only by the unschooled. This time, the name’s the same, but they’re trying to sell the junk science of global warming.
I adore the original DTESS–but I have no intention of seeing this release at any time in any format.
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:11 am
This movie is destined to be a comedy classic. With the threat of nukes still very real, not to mention what is happening in places like Tibet and Dufar, Al Gort travels millions of light years to sell me a hybrid. Gotta love it.
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:43 am
I can’t wait for what surely will prove to be either a ninety minute AlGore Inc. commercial or comedy gold. I guess it could be both. But surely Hollywood needs to do more than this to offset the Internet’s ability to provide both sides of an argument.
March 23rd, 2008 at 10:23 am
“Hey man, don’t put that tin man down! That was iconoclastic!” Reeves protested. I think Mr. Intellectual meant “iconic.”
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:22 am
First medias “Global Disaster” was the New Ice Age in the 70`s , with over population,then the bird flu,then worldwide famine,nuclear winters,aids,world wide drought, ozone depletion,comet/earth ipmacts etc; ad naseum. Global Warming will fall off to the wayside just as all the others did.In the meantime millions will be made off the fear manufactured by the media for profit and nothing else but!
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
A better plot line would be to have Klaatu threaten to destroy Hollywood if it doesn’t
stop making bad movies and even worse remakes
of classics.
BTW, I appulaud the previous poster who suggested
Gort be played by Al Gort, Jr. It’s perfection of
casting.
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
If and when intelligent life comes to our planet it will be not to stop nuclear annihilation or man’s destruction of the planet. It will be to destroy Hollywood. Prime directive.
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
hahahaha Dixie..I guess you’re right about the incorrect word usage…but haven’t you ever made a mistake before? Give the guy a break. Yes it’s true, since the writers have to write real movies now instead of sex and violence, they have run out of ideas and can only come up with remakes…seems like it’s time to let some new blood into the industry..someone with new and fresh ideas…that’ll be the day…but I guess it is happening in some respects with the reality tv shows, but they have a long way to go. Street Kings is sure to be a good movie.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Oh goody. Hollywood is giving us another movie warning us about the dire consequences we face if we don’t take the global warming hoax seriously. So, An Inconvenient Truth, The Day After Tomorrow, The 11th Hour, Happy Feet and Arctic Tale didn’t do a sufficient job at communicating the message, but Keanu Reeves as a space alien will?
March 24th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
There are bombs, and there are nuclear bombs. And then there is this movie, a veritable Doomsday Machine among bad movies. Financed, no doubt, by doctors and other thrill-seekers who want to be a part of “the Hollywood experience”. Enjoy the ride, boys!
March 24th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Pathetic.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
It sounds quite hypocritical to me. An alien civilization that has conqued interplanetary travel must have doe quite a bit to damage their environment in the process — after all, as far as we know it is impossible to create a technological society without polution. Did they burn fossil fuels, use nuclear power? Then they have the nerve to come here and tell us not to do the same thing? To me it sounds more like they want to ruin our civilization before we develop far enough along to compete with them. Maybe that should be the plot.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Please.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
This is awesome. We’re going to take a lesson on politics from a guy who doesn’t even know the definition of “detente.” Nuclear detente wasn’t around until the ’60s, not 1951, genius.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Let me get this straight. Gort is going to destroy the Earth if we don’t stop destroying the Earth. Let’s add Will Smith to the mix. Gort opens fire, Will shouts “Aw Hell No”, and they blow things up for an hour and a half. Typical brain-dead Hollywood production. One that I will definitely ignore.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Bad ending to a great movie. If Klaatu wants us to save the planet from global warming, why doesn’t he just give us his technology so we don’t have to burn fossil fuels.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
For the love of all things holy, make Hollywood stop “re-imagining” the classics! We don’t need updates of War of the Worlds, Planet of the Apes, or The Day the Earth Stood Still. These films are not dated, they are vintage! They express truths that are still as valid today as they were 50 years ago.
Hands off, Hollywood! We mock your attempts to fix what isn’t broken.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Global warming and it’s new ‘catch-all’ moniker of Climate Change is a hoax. It is nothing more than a scare tactic to get the world and specifically the USA to sign the Kyoto Protocals and other soveriegnty ending traitor-treaties by the Communist pushers of one world government.
The hoax has been exposed but like all good Commies, they will blather on endlessly about it pretending all the while that the emergency really exists and that only they can fix things….by the rest of us submitting to their benevolent rule of course.
Environmentalists are the stooges of the Communists.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Of course they changes it… It’s P.C. Hollywood. Heck, they even change things as not to offend muslims in terrorist scenes.
The usual stupid pablum. Oh well….
Another bomb on the way!!! LOL!!!
March 24th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I have to say that I loved the original. Truly a classic. How this remake is going to play out is going to be interesting. I mean, is it just me, or is the original message still relevant? Why change it?
Good thing he still says, “Klaatu Barada Nikto.” I wrote an entire article on that for my college paper.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I don’t know about ‘new’ PC messages, but this is the greatest SciFi movie of all time. And, like many old classics, some brain-dead money-grubber just has to #@*#$ it up. Using a Keanu, no less. His new message? “Earth dies, you die. You die, Earth survives…”
Yeah, that sounds about Keanu’s speed. Too slow to live. Too stupid to live. I know where I’ll be saving some $$, not watching this stupid crap.
Apologies to Michael Renney, Gort, and the People of Earth.
They should be forthcoming, Scott…
March 24th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Scott in post #31 (above) hits the nail right on the head.
Co-signed
March 24th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Count me out!. I don’t recall Iran being a threat because of global warming it’s nukes. Global warming is a crock and they know it, they are just trying to get the last big bucks they can and I doubt they are gonna get it here.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
“The Day After Tomorrow” didn’t make money, John? I suggest you check your facts there sparky. The film is the 45th highest grossing pic ever and made over 500k in the US alone.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Why don’t actors stick to the only thing they might know…ACTING! Keanu isn’t as great an actor as the hype portrays him as, and personally I don’t like hollywood pushing their views on the gullible!
March 24th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Day After Tomorrow???? That was a great piece of science fiction, but yeah it was a bomb. I saw it on hotel cable, 6 months after it was in theaters…
As for global warming, what with the record COLD snap in Michigan, I better go get in my V8 Silverado and drive a few extra miles each day to warm things up so the snow will melt in the Northeastern US. Who’s with me???
March 24th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
“We’d rather be entertained, not preached to. Take your socialist idea’s and move to Europe.”
Yes, enough of this “thinking.” I have to use my brain sometimes at work! I don’t want to use it all the time! But when you take them to Europe, please send us some extra apostrophes in return. Obviously we need as many as we can get. If not, then we’ll have to write plural words without them! And that would be a tragedy, I’m sure we can all agree.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Just bring on “Constantine II” already!
March 24th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
“Earth dies, you die. You die, Earth survives…”
What part of this does not make sense? Where in the article is “global warming” even mentioned? Global warming aside, are there people out there with IQs above room temperature that seriously believe that human activities are not having a serious negative impact on our planet and it’s ability to sustain human life?
March 24th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
I would love to see a survey of how far a movie-watching couple travels in order to watch one of these movie epics. In that light, how much “global warming” does Mr. K add to the world to make his message? I’m willing to bet an eyeball that K ends up netting a massive “carbon footprint” in order to rake in his millions.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I suggest you check your facts there sparky. The film is the 45th highest grossing pic ever and made over 500k in the US alone.
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March 24th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Ever notice how the “bright lights” in Hollywood seem to be so lacking in ideas that they keep turning to remakes of classic movies. But they are positive that their new version will be better?
March 24th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I submitted a script for this remake. It centered on the alien’s fear of our irrational belief systems ‘religion’. This great threat had to be contained, with force if necessary. It even mentioned that religion has led to global warming being ignored. It even showed some of the effects of that global warming (it was set 20 years in the future). They (FOX) had already hired a deeply religious director so that wasn’t going to fly, oh and any discussion of religion was way too controversial. Any new idea in Hollywood has to be palatable to everybody, making it bad for everyone. Remember if you try to please everyone you’ll end up pleasing no one. I guess there are just too many old guys and lawyers running things, when was the last time a lawyer was entertaining.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Al Gore as Gort? I’m not so sure. One is a stiff being devoid of emotion and serves only one purpose. The other is a robot. I am sure that Fox will pussify this classic.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Because I was the star of the original movie, I’m going to Keanu’s (you thought Klaatu was a wierd name) house and knock the living dog crap outta him.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
taking a classic and turning it into a politically correct piece of garbage is right up to hollywood speed. the matrix was good but not becuase of reeves. does hollywood really think the rest of the viewing public is as brain dead as they are ?
March 24th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
anonymous? You submitted a script? WoW! Mostly Harmless, try to think for yourself. Numerous brilliant scientists are speaking out against the propaganda of GW;