Sci-Fi Forbidden Planet Remake with JMS

[Galactus]

Cameron May Be Forbidden
Titanic director reportedly eyes Planet remake.
by Jim Vejvoda and Brian Linder

December 19, 2008 - James Cameron may no longer be content with just being king of the world. Now he reportedly wants to be king of Altair IV as well.

IESB reports that the Oscar-winning filmmaker may next direct the remake of the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet for Warner Bros. J. Michael Straczynski (The Changeling, Babylon 5) penned the screenplay.

The site claims Cameron "may want to have first shot at bringing one of the most ground-breaking science fiction films of its time back to the big screen. Imagine the new technology he could create for Robby the Robot."

IESB points out that Cameron has been interested in Forbidden Planet since 1998, as evidenced by this article at Ain't It Cool News.

As you may know, Forbidden Planet is basically a re-envisioning of Shakespeare's The Tempest. It follows the crew of an Earth ship bound for Altair IV, where an expedition team has gone missing. When the crew arrives they find that most of the expedition team has died. Only a scientist and his daughter are still alive – not counting his obedient robot Robby. The demented doctor has created an empire on the alien world. His loathing for things foreign to the world begins manifest itself through the alien world's advanced technology, especially once love blooms between the ship's captain and the scientist's daughter.

The original film was directed by Fred M. Wilcox and starred Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and a young Leslie Nielson.

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.latinoreview.com/news/ex...den-planet-plot-trilogy-details-revealed-5879

EXCLUSIVE: J. Michael Straczynski's FORBIDDEN PLANET Plot & Trilogy Details Revealed!

Earlier today, IESB reported that James Cameron was circling the project which is true. At press time, Cameron was supposed to meet with Straczynski and I don't have knowledge if they done so yet but I do know that Cameron has flipped for the current draft.

I was also able to take a look at the draft and what is interesting is what he says on the 1st and last pages of the script.


For starters Straczynski's draft is PREQUEL to the 1956 sci-fi classic! But that is not all, Straczynski is planning to make Forbidden Planet into a trilogy of films! More on that in a sec.


The prologue to the script contains the following: Two ships traveled to Altair 4, a planet orbiting a star 16.7 light years from Earth. The first ship, the Bellerophon, came to explore that world. The humans on board encountered the relics of the Krell civilization for the first time and exhumed their dangerous past. The Bellerophon was never heard from again. Twenty years later, a second ship, a C-57D Starcruiser, came to investigate the dissapearance of the Bellerophon and her crew.


The original 1956 Forbidden Planet told the tale of the second ship. What Straczynski's draft is about is the never-before revealed tale of the first ship, the Bellerophon.


So what of the supposed trilogy?


The last page contains a epilogue where depending on the financial reaction to Forbidden Planet, Strazynski could create the following three film franchise.

• Movie One tells the story of the original ship that came to Altair 4.

• Movie Two tells the story of the search for the Krell by the captain of the Bellerophon and his crew...as Diana continues to grow into something profoundly other-wordly. The search takes them beyond the limits of known space into other dimensions, passing from what's known into what's not.

• Movie Three tells the story of the second ship to arrive at Altair 4 to investigate what happened to the Bellerophon. They discover Morbius and his "daughter," who is desperate to get off the planet and out into the rest of the universe, where her power would nearly be god-like...a fate we are spared when Morbius sacrifices his life to keep her there and eliminate the Krell homeworld once and for all.

Because movies two and three would have some overlapping cast members, but not all of them, they could be easily shot concurrently or back to back.


Straczynski personally states in the last paragraph that what is cool about this new movie is that events shown completely change the meaning of the original Forbidden Planet without changing a frame of film. Altaira's attempt to seduce or inveigle the crew comes across as manipulative, using them to get off the planet. Straczynski also states that this has value to geeks of which he is one.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Sounds interesting. But frankly, one film will do.

 

[Galactus]

To be honest, for now I can't feel really any excitement about the possibility of James Cameron directing this or care if the movie is made or not. I suppose that is what reading news about yet another remake virtually every day can do. There are so many great sci-fi novels that could be adapted and yet Hollywood decides to remake old sci-fi movies. But it seems Cameron have had an eye on this project som time, so I suppose this might be for him what King Kong was for Peter Jackson.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

How many leaks before they just give up?
http://www.moviehole.net/200918032-forbidden-planet-script-tossed-out

 

[Octoberist]

that theory of his doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Sawyer]

BKV, huh?

 

[Silvermoth]

Oh that’s kind of cool! What a shame it didn’t work out for Y The Last Man but at least he’s landed on his feet