This weekend sees the release of the ‘remake’ of the classic 1951 alien contact film, The Day the Earth Stood Still (we noted its pervasive influence in Monday’s News Briefs). With Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly and John Cleese playing the leading characters, the updated storyline shifts the focus from the perils of nuclear weaponry (a major concern in 1951) to the dangers of human degradation of the environment, and updates the sci-fi technology aspect to a more ‘modern’ view (e.g. the flying saucer becomes a ‘temporal space translator’). Here’s the trailer:
Interesting to note that SETI’s Seth Shostak was consultant on the film, and he’s written a piece for Space.com about the experience. Shostak corrected technical details, and also nit-picked the scientific dialogue – to the point where it seems that director Scott Derrickson got a little peeved:
Derrickson joked that initially he was chagrined to get the first draft of the script back from Shostak with huge sections crossed out as being wrong-wrongedy-wrong. Derrickson needed more than that, and wasn’t afraid to say so: “I said, ‘Okay, I get it, the draft was wrong, now stop being so condescending and help me figure out what the lines should be.'”
Given his recent CSICOPian tendencies, I wonder if Shostak put a big red line through the complete aliens-visiting-Earth concept with a note saying “well this is obviously impossible and there’s no evidence to suggest it!”…
Actually, when I saw that Shostak was a consultant on the film, I pondered on the possible discussions between he and John Cleese, given the Monty Python star’s interest in ‘fringe’ ideas. Sure enough, Seth Shostak mentions it in his article:
Between takes, both Reeves and Cleese solicited my opinion on subjects that had nothing to do with the film. In particular, they wanted to know why we’re here. What’s the grander meaning of our existence? Apparently a lot of people assume that astronomers, who deal with big things and long timescales, have some insight into what life is all about. More than, say, tax accountants.
“Surely,” Cleese ventured, “we’re here for a purpose.” I figured that a lifetime of standing around movie and television sets, not to mention the front desk at Fawlty Towers, had prompted this question.
“Well, John,” I responded, “maybe that’s true. Maybe there is some grand plan. But then again, you might have asked that question 100 million years ago, hanging out with a bunch of your dinosaur pals. The answer then was ‘you’re just a dinosaur.’ The answer today might be no more profound.”
I’m not sure Cleese was fully gratified by my response.
Trailers, images and additional content related to the new film can be found at the official movie site.
