 Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Scott Derrickson |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Erwin Stoff Paul Harris Boardman |
| Written by | David Scarpa |
| Starring | Keanu Reeves Jennifer Connelly Jaden Smith |
| Music by | Tyler Bates |
| Cinematography | David Tattersall |
| Editing by | Wayne Wahrmann |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | December 12, 2008 |
| Running time | 104 min.[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $80–100 million[ |
Official Web site:
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 2008 science fiction film, a remake of the 1951 film of the same name. Directed by Scott Derrickson and starring Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, the film updates Cold War themes like nuclear warfare to the more contemporary issue of global warming. It will be released in conventional theaters and IMAX screens on December 12, 2008.
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[edit] Premise
A representative of an alien race that went through drastic evolution to survive its own climate change, Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) comes to Earth to assess whether humanity can prevent the environmental damage they have inflicted on their own planet. Klaatu himself already has a negative opinion of humans, and when barred from speaking to the United Nations, he decides they shall be exterminated so the planet – with its rare ability to sustain complex life – can survive. It is up to Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) and her stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith) to convince Klaatu humans are worth saving, but it may already be too late.[4]
[edit] Cast
- Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, an alien messenger in human form. Reeves dislikes remakes, but was impressed by the script, which he deemed a reimagining. He enjoyed the original film as a child and became fonder of it as an adult when he understood how relevant it was, but liked this interpretation because it lacked the contradictory message of Klaatu "laying down the law [...] almost as though the alien had the bigger stick".[5] At Reeves' insistence, the classic line "Klaatu barada nikto" was kept from the original, though in an "inverted" context.[6] He spent many weeks advising the script, trying to make Klaatu's transistion from alien in human form to one who appreciates their emotions and beliefs subtle and nuanced.[4] Derrickson said although Reeves would not use actions "that are highly unusual or highly quirky", he nevertheless "keeps you aware of the fact that this being you're walking through this movie with is not a human being".[7]
- Jennifer Connelly as Helen Benson, a famed astrobiologist at Princeton University who is recruited by the government to study Klaatu. Connelly was Derrickson's first choice for the part.[7] She is a fan of the original film and felt Patricia Neal's original portrayal of Helen was "fabulous", but trusted the filmmakers with their reinterpretation of the story and Helen, who was a secretary in the original.[6] Connelly emphasized Helen is amazed when she meets Klaatu, as she never believed she would encounter a sentient alien like him after speculating on extraterrestrial life for so long.[4]
- Jaden Smith as Jacob, Helen's rebellious eight-year old stepson. His conflict with his stepmother was worsened by the death of his father, and initially dislikes Klaatu, believing he is a potential stepfather. Jacob replaces the character of Bobby (Billy Gray) from the original, and his relationship with Helen was written as a microcosm of how Klaatu comes to see humanity – the aliens sees their cold and distant relationship as proof positive of normal human behavior, and their reconciliation forces him to change his mind. Smith said he found Jacob difficult to play because he felt the character an "opposite" of his personality. Smith had met Reeves before on the set of The Matrix sequels with his mother Jada Pinkett-Smith.[4]
- John Cleese cameos as Professor Barnhardt, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who specializes in the evolutionary basis of altruism. Helen takes Klaatu to him to further change his mind. The role was the most difficult to cast, and eventually the filmmakers decided to approach Cleese, noting "Who would you rather make the argument [to Klaatu] for mankind than John Cleese?"[8] Stoff had met Cleese a few times beforehand and had noted his intellect.[4] The actor was surprised the filmmakers were interested in him, and decided playing a dramatic role would be easier than to play a manic, comedic one at his age. He was often reminded to speed up his dialogue so Reeves would not appear in sync with normal human speech patterns.[5] Cleese said he is not interested in extraterrestrial life because he often philosophizes about the purpose of life and why humans are distracted by trivial matters.[4] Cleese had experience writing equations he did not understand, as he had spoken Russian in A Fish Called Wanda without knowing its meaning.[4] The crew enjoyed working with Cleese and were sad when he finished his part.[8]
- Jon Hamm as Dr. Michael Granier, a NASA official who recruits Helen into his scientific team investigating Klaatu. Granier is fascinated by Klaatu, but is torn between his official obligation to detain the alien and protect his country.[4] Hamm acknowledged science fiction was a niche genre when the original film was made, and that it used science fiction to make topical issues more approachable. Hamm had the same feelings for this remake.[8] Originally, Hamm's character was French and named Michel.[9] Although he is interested in maths and science, Hamm found his technical dialogue difficult and had to film his lines repeatedly.[4]
- Kathy Bates as Regina Jackson, the United States Secretary of Defense. Bates had only two weeks to film her scenes, so she often requested Derrickson act out her lines so she would directly understand his aims for her dialogue, rather than interpret vague directions.[4]
- Kyle Chandler in an unspecified role.[5]
[edit] Production
[edit] Development
In 1994, 20th Century Fox and Erwin Stoff had produced the successful Keanu Reeves film Speed. Stoff was at an office at the studio when he saw a poster for The Day the Earth Stood Still, which made him ponder a remake with Reeves as Klaatu.[8] By the time David Scarpa started writing his draft in 2005,[10] Thomas Rothman was in charge of Fox and felt a responsibility to remake the film.[8] Scarpa felt everything about the original film was still relevant, but changed the allegory from nuclear war to environmental damage because "the specifics of [how] we now have the capability to destroy ourselves have changed".[4]
Scarpa noted the recent events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 informed his mindset when writing the screenplay.[10] He noted "People don't want to be preached to about the environment. We tried to avoid having our alien looking out over the garbage in the lake and crying a silent tear," à la the 1970s Keep America Beautiful adverts. He scrapped Klaatu's speech at the conclusion of the story because "audiences today are [un]willing to tolerate that".[11]
Director Scott Derrickson admired the original film's director Robert Wise, whom he met as a film student.[4] He generally dislikes remakes, but he enjoyed the script – which he decided was a retelling of the story and not a true remake.[5] He also explained The Day the Earth Stood Still is a not a widely seen classic film, unlike The Wizard of Oz, which he would not bother remaking.[10] There was debate over whether to have Klaatu land in Washington, D.C. as with the original, but Derrickson chose New York City because he liked the geometry of Klaatu's sphere landing in Central Park.[12] Astronomer Seth Shostak served as scientific consultant.[4]
[edit] Filming
Filming took place from December 12, 2007 to March 19, 2008 at Vancouver Film Studios.[12][13] The film was originally scheduled for release on May 9, 2008, but it was delayed to December 12, 2008 because filming commenced later than scheduled.[14] The shoot was unaffected by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike;[8] by then Scarpa had written forty drafts of the script.[10] The film was mostly shot on sets because it was winter in Vancouver.[4]
As Fox had a mandate to become a carbon neutral company by 2011, The Day the Earth Stood Still's production had an environmentally friendly regimen. "Whether it was because of this movie thematically or it was an accident of time, there were certain things production-wise we've been doing and been asked to do and so on," said Erwin Stoff.[8] To prevent the wasting of paper, concept art, location stills and costume tests were posted on a website created by the production for crew members to look up. Costumes were kept for future Fox productions or given to homeless shelters, rather than thrown away. Hybrid vehicles were used and crew members had to turn off their car engines if they sat in their vehicles for more than three minutes.[4]
Derrickson was fascinated by color schemes. He chose blue-green and orange as the primary colors for The Day the Earth Stood Still. The missile silo the military convert for experiments on Gort emphasized gray and orange, which was inspired by an image of lava flowing through a gray field. Derrickson opted to shoot on traditional film, and rendered the colors in post-production to make them more subtle, for realism.[4]
[edit] Effects
Weta Digital worked on the majority of the effects, with additional work by Cinesite and Flash Film Works. The machines of Klaatu's people have a biological basis rather than a mechanical one, as Derrickson theorized their level of advancement would be shown by their mastering of ecology.[4] Derrickson deemed a modern audience would find the original's flying saucer amusingly dated.[12] The director also noted many films had been influenced by The Day the Earth Stood Still, so they needed to bring new ideas to the remake.[8] They approached their spacecraft as interdimensional portals resembling orbs. The script had specified the inside of the orbs as a "white limbo-y thing", but visual effects consultant Jeff Okun explained this was deleted for being too "cheesy".[12]
Derrickson felt not showing the inside of the ship, unlike the original, would make the audience more curious.[4] As well as computer-generated spheres – such as Klaatu's 300 feet ship, or a 3000 feet tall orb that rises from the sea – 700 pound spheres nine feet in diameter were sculpted by Custom Plastics, which built spheres for Disney theme parks. The spheres were split in two to make transportation easier. It was difficult placing lights inside them without making them melt. The visual effects team looked at molecules, water droplets and the surfaces of Jupiter and Saturn for the spheres' texture.[4]
Derrickson emphasized a Trinity-like relationship between the sphere, Klaatu and Gort.[8] Klaatu is initially depicted as a radiant focus of sentient light. He is then depicted as a seven-feet tall gray "walking womb" shape which finally takes on a completely human appearance. The filmmakers conceived the transistionary form because they pondered the idea of humans mistaking space suits for alien skin. Computer-generated imagery and practical effects achieved the transformation.[4] The creation of the alien form was led by Todd Masters (Slither), who hired a sex toy maker to sculpt the skinsuit with thermal plastic and silicone.[12]
For the film's version of Gort, Derrickson explored many possibilities for depicting the character, but realized making a faithful homage to the original was best.[7] Their 15th draft[10] had depicted the robot as a four-legged "Totem" that stands upright after firing its weapon beam.[15] Okun explained there were many more "horrific" or "amazing" concepts, but it made sense that the robot would assume a familiar human shape. He cited the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey as an inspiration for Gort's texture, noting "it's a simple shape, it has no emotion [...] it just simply is",[5] which makes Gort more frightening because the audience cannot tell what he is thinking. The computer-generated robot was estimated by the animators to be 28 feet tall, whereas in the original he was played by the 7 feet tall Lock Martin.[4] Gort's computer model was programmed to reflect light, and the filmmakers spent time on motion capture sessions to guide the performance. An actor wore weights on his hands and feet so the animators could bring a sense of weight and power to Gort.[4] His destructive capabilities were based on locust swarms.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ "The Day the Earth Stood Still". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved on 2008-11-24.
- ^ "Keanu Reeves: The three billion dollar man", The Mail on Sunday (2008-11-22). Retrieved on 25 November 2008.
- ^ "Aliens Among Us, Then and Now", Entertainment Weekly (2008-10-31). Retrieved on 17 November 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v "Production notes". 20th Century Fox. Retrieved on 2008-11-21.
- ^ a b c d e Damon Wise (December 2008). "Keanu Barada Nikto", Empire, pp. 143–149.
- ^ a b Cindy White (2008-11-17). "On Set: Day The Earth Stood Still", SCI FI Wire. Retrieved on 17 November 2008.
- ^ a b c Shawn Adler (2008-07-04). "‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ Trailer Is Here!", MTV Movies Blog. Retrieved on 5 July 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Ryan Rotten (2008-11-17). "The Day the Earth Stood Still Set Visit Q & A", ComingSoon.net. Retrieved on 17 November 2008.
- ^ Paulington James Christensen (2008-11-17). "Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly Prepare Us for The Day the Earth Stood Still!", MovieWeb. Retrieved on 17 November 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f Matt Mueller (December 2008). "Excellent adventure, or bogus journey?", Total Film, pp. 68-72.
- ^ Scott Brown (2008-11-25). "The Looming Deluge of Eco-Disaster Flicks", Wired. Retrieved on 25 November 2008.
- ^ a b c d e Ryan Rotten (2008-11-17). "Set Visit: The Day the Earth Stood Still", ComingSoon.net. Retrieved on 17 November 2008.
- ^ "Film Production Chart". Variety. Retrieved on 2008-07-05.
- ^ Pamela McClintock (2007-09-26). "'Transformers' sequel sets 2009 date", Variety. Retrieved on 5 October 2007.
- ^ "No Gort!! No "Klaatu Barada Nikto"!! Uncapie Goes Postal On THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Remake Script!!", Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved on 5 July 2008.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- The Day the Earth Stood Still at the Internet Movie Database
- The Day the Earth Stood Still at Allmovie
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Keanu Reeves - extraterrestrial
The star talks to Will Lawrence about how he approached his performance as a visiting alien in the remake of a sci-fi classic
Keanu Reeves wants to know how many years I have. It's an unusual expression, akin to an English-language translation of the French "Quel âge avez-vous?" Maybe this should come as no great surprise - after all, Reeves grew up in Canada.
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"So, c'mon," he insists. "How many?" I fib a little. "Thirty-eight," I exaggerate; I'm adding a few years to bring our ages closer together. "You're looking good for it, man," he says. Of course I am - I'm a fair bit younger.
"It's funny, you are going to get to 40 soon - it's like a club with a secret handshake," he says. "I remember my doctor telling me to enjoy my forties, because I'll still have my physical capabilities but also my life experiences. We should take advantage of that before the physical capabilities slip away."
I meet Reeves in a New York hotel room, which houses a number a small telescopes, each one overlooking the southern tip of Central Park. Last night was his 44th birthday - "It was quiet, I spent it with family and friends" - and today he's talking about his latest film, a re-imagining of the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which he plays the role of Klaatu, an alien who lands in Central Park. The little telescopes in the hotel room, I note, would have afforded potential onlookers a fine view of his spaceship.
advertisement "Actually, I'm not sure people would want to see this Klaatu," counters Reeves. "He's a little different from the original character, who was played by Michael Rennie in the 1951 classic. He was pretty idealised in the first film. He had Christian, spiritual overtones and he had a naturalism to him. He was more human than human. I am a little less naturalistic." In both the original movie and the remake - the latter also features Jennifer Connelly, John Cleese and Will Smith's 10-year-old son, Jaden - Klaatu arrives on Earth with a warning. The first film was released during the first decade of the Cold War, and reflected the concerns of the time: nuclear armageddon. The remake, however, picks up on environmental themes. Here Klaatu is a friend of the Earth, not a friend of mankind, and if he kills the latter, the former will survive. "That's how he thinks at the outset, but Klaatu discovers his humanity during the film - that is the journey for him," says Reeves. "So I played him as a man who has an alien inside him, but he is embodied by human flesh and that changes him. I picture the human body as a kind of container for him. It was funny - because of the way I was playing him, I didn't have a lot of facial cues, so when I was thinking about the character, I'd just look at people and I would answer them, but I wouldn't do anything with my face. I realised that it was a little off-putting so when we weren't shooting, I had to remember to smile. I enjoyed it a lot." It seems Reeves is taking his doctor's advice: he's enjoying his forties. Traditionally, the fourth decade can prove a difficult one for actresses; for actors, the real test comes in their thirties. Reeves, however, survived, thanks largely to his lead performances in the three Matrix films, which, along with boosting his bank balance, established him as a sci-fi superstar (he has also featured in the likes of Johnny Mnemonic, Constantine and A Scanner Darkly), a reputation that his latest film will only enhance. "I grew up liking science fiction - it's almost like a Trojan horse," he says. "You can put any other genre inside. You can do a romance like Blade Runner, you can do action romance like Star Wars; an existential art movie like Tarkovsky's Solaris; or a comedy like Spaceballs. It really translates well to a lot of different genres. "As to whether I get stereotyped for doing sci-fi, I don't know. For me, sci-fi's just one of the things I can do." In his long and varied career - he began on Canadian TV in 1984 - Reeves has not always won critical plaudits. The stoner-dude he played in the two Bill & Ted films (1989 and 1991) cast a shadow over his later work, and some of his performances - notably in Point Break (1991) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - were justifiably accused of being wooden. But his performances have matured with age. He has worked with some of the world's biggest-name directors, including Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, 1988), Coppola (Bram Stoker's Dracula), Bertolucci (Little Buddha, 1994), Gus Van Sant (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, 1993) and, of course, the Wachowskis (The Matrix trilogy, 1999-2003). "I have no idea what I would have done if I hadn't been actor," he says. "I've been doing this professionally since I was 16. I've never really - knock on wood - had to look for another job and hopefully I won't have to in the future. I played hockey when I was an adolescent, and maybe that was a crossroads. Professional hockey or the high-school play? I took the high-school play." The high-school play has since taken Reeves to the apex of the Hollywood A-list. He has a home in the Hollywood Hills and another in Manhattan not far from our hotel, although he tries to keep himself out of the media spotlight. Notoriously press-shy, he gives short shrift to personal questions. This, however, should come as no great surprise; he has endured a turbulent private life. In 2001 his girlfriend Jennifer Syme was killed in a car accident. Syme had given birth to the couple's daughter Ava in 1999, but she was stillborn. The two are buried side by side in a Los Angeles cemetery. He has never spoken about the events publicly. Nowadays, he confesses to an interest in travel, especially if it involves his Norton motorcycle. "I have a bike and it's how I get around. There are so many paparazzi in Los Angeles now, it's like: here is Keanu filling up his bike with gas, here is Keanu at a stoplight on his bike! But I got the chance to travel a little bit with the bike this summer in France - I took the Route Napoléon and I went over the mountains in the Ardèche." His trip to France also allowed him to indulge his interest in wine. "I'm not a connoisseur, though I do enjoy a good drop now and then. For me it's not only the taste but also the moment that you have the wine. So I have a sentimental favourite, which is a 1982 French vintage, a fine year from a fine grower and a couple of fine moments. "An interest in wine, eh? I guess that's something that happens in your forties!" He smiles. "Like my doctor said, I should enjoy them." |
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