That's right — the movie about aliens coming to Earth to wipe out humans is going to be broadcast into space. But the director, Scott Derrickson, doesn't want to be blamed.
Dec 10, 2008 04:00 PM
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That's right — the movie about aliens coming to Earth to wipe out humans is going to be broadcast into space. But the director, Scott Derrickson, doesn't want to be blamed.
We also talked to Derrickson about the chances for a sequel to his remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and asked who would win in a fight: Neo or Klaatu?
The Earth Stood Still transmission will reach any possible civilizations currently orbiting Alpha Centauri approximately four years from now, in the year 2012.
So you're beaming The Day The Earth Stood Still into space?
I know. Can you believe that?
No, I can not. Why did you decide to do that?
I have no idea. Somebody did, and told me they did it. And then I found that out and thought, "Boy I hope I'm not the one responsible for bringing the evil aliens. I hope whoever finds it is nice."
I was going to say, is that really the message that you want to send to another galaxy? Are you happy with the message?
Yeah, very with what the movie has to say. I do think the movie is a pretty accurate reflection of human nature. It's what the original was. I tried to be faithful and true to that basic story and that basic theme.
The movie does end on a cliffhanger, you don't know what's going to happen next. Would you ever consider making a sequel?
Oooh. You know, probably not. Never say never though, how many directors have said that and then done it. I have no intention to at this point.
A lot of people are saying that the message of the film is to go green, sort of like an Inconvenient Truth. What is the message that you as a director wanted to bring?
This movie doesn't have an environmental message to it. I don't like message movies. This is a big entertaining popcorn movie. People are coming to be entertained. If it has any statement in it, it's about human nature, not about... I'm not telling the audience how they're supposed to act or what they're supposed to do or anything like that. It basically is saying, as human beings, we've gotten ourselves into some serious messes and that's too bad, that's unfortunate, and we're all paying the price for it. But sometimes that's what you have to do before you make the changes that you really needed to make in the first place. And I think that's what's happening.
Who do you think would win in a fight Neo or Klaatu?
Oh That's a good one. That's a really good question. All I know is the Earth would get ripped to shreds in the middle of that fight. Wouldn't want to be there for that one.
If all goes according to plan, this first intentional transmission of a movie can be reached at different parts of our solar system, according to the press release, Deep Space Communications Network estimates arrival times at:
(Distance from Earth – at the speed of light – and transmission time, as follows):
Moon: 0.000000038, 1.1991888 seconds
Sun: 0.000016, 8.41536 minutes
Mercury: 0.0000095, 4.99662 minutes
Venus: 0.00000476, 2.5035696 minutes
Mars: 0.0000076, 3.997296 minutes
Jupiter: 0.0000666, 35.028936 minutes
Saturn: 0.000135, 1.18341 hours
Uranus: 0.000285, 2.49831 hours
Neptune: 0.00046, 4.03236 hours
Pluto: 0.0006183, 5.4200178 hours
If the rest of the galaxy thinks were terrible people, I just want to say: I told you so. But it also begs the question, what movie should we send into space instead? The Day The Earth Stood Still opens in theaters this Friday.
Send an email to Meredith, the author of this post, at meredith@io9.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
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