The Day The Earth Stood Still

"I certainly took a lot of time to explore other possibilities. It wasn't just a foregone conclusion in my mind that we would be sticking to the original. I tried looking at a lot of different possibilities, worked on a lot of different ideas with artists and just always a nagging sense that there was something right about the way the original, that there was something about this alien entity choosing a human form or being in a human form that had value even by modern standards, not by 1950 standards. I also am such a fan of the original film. You have to also just have some respect for Gort. Gort is Gort. There's no question what we designed pays homage to the original."

Earlier, Reeves has revealed that Klaatu's message to Earth was different from the one in the original. The new warning is to stop destroying the environment. "I think that this film in some ways is an attempt to address a number of issues that are amongst the most pressing issues for the human race," Derrickson explained. "The original being a Cold War film was addressing what was clearly the greatest threat for the human race at that time, mutual nuclear destruction, and that's not the most pressing threat that we face now. It's also man vs. man. We are destroying each other as well. Our country's at war right now. There is certainly the issue being addressed in the movie of our treatment of one another on the planet."

In the original, Klaatu finds the character of Helen (Jennifer Connelly) after he escapes from custody. Here, she goes to him. "She's actually a professor at Princeton University and she's a microbiologist and she's recruited early in the movie for an event that's clearly occurring. She's recruited by the government whether she likes it or not, really," Derrickson said. "Helen is probably an expanded role from the original film."

Derrickson added that his film will not use the obvious Christ metaphors that the original did. "My approach to that was to not discard that, but to be not quite as direct as the original," he said.

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Last update : 08-07-2008

Keywords : Derrickson, Trailer, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Jaden Smith, John Cleese, Robot, SciFi, science fiction, movie,

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