The Earth Has Stood Still for Keanu Reeves!

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Watchmen, Keanu Reeves is on the hunt for his next big blockbuster. And let's be frank about this, he hasn't had a blockbuster hit since the last Matrix movie in 2003, as the four years since have seen him mainly take on smaller movies with the exception being Constantine which was a huge disappointment domestically for Warner Brothers. Variety report today that he might have found his next big blockbuster. They say the that 20th Century Fox have tapped him up to star in the remake of the 1950's sci-fi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still which we announced in April would be directed by The Exorcism of Emily Rose helmer, Scott Derrickson. The remake will be Derrickson's sophomore movie, as it is for scribe David Scarpa whose single previous credit is The Last Castle. Reeves will play the role of Klaatu, a humanoid alien who comes to Earth with his indestructible robot telling world leaders that their continued aggression towards each other will result in destruction from species watching a far. Production is set to begin either at the end of the year of early 2008 as Reeves is currently committed to The Night Watchmen. The Day The Earth Stood Still is a great product of 50's paranoid science fiction and unfortunately Fox are in need of a tentpole release in 2009 so they have plumped to remake this. I do love the original movie and is a part of a movie-making era I enjoy greatly. I love the passion of the sci-fi film-makers from that time, whose energy you can almost see burst out of the screens and Bernard Hermann's score too is worth a mention.

They were fun and entertaining but they also had something to say about society at that time. I guess you can see the thinking behind Fox going ahead with this remake. The themes are certainly relevant today with our world leaders and their never ending bickering back and forth as we head towards more inevitable wars in the future. And The Exorcism of Emily Rose was an ok movie and which at times showed some great promise for Derrickson, especially in terms of atmosphere and tone which is always a big plus for potential science fiction directors. I guess we should give it a chance before writing it off then but when The Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake just recently went so wrong, it's hard not to have reservations.