Hollywood Reporter has announced that Keanu Reeves is attached to an upcoming movie called Jekyll, scripted by Justin Haythe, writer of recent Sam Mendes movie Revolutionary Road. Details about the movie - including whether or not it's connected to Stephen Moffat's BBC TV show of the same name - haven't been released, but this is the second movie based on Robert Louis Stephenson's novel in the works at Universal; the studio is also working on an adaptation from Guillermo del Toro that's said to be "more faithful" to the original source. That movie, however, is way down the priority list for the in-demand director (First comes his Hobbit project with Peter Jackson, and then another couple of movies with Universal), meaning that there's every chance that the Keanu version can come, flop, and be forgotten about before del Toro's version even gets filmed.

Of course, if Jekyll is enough of a hit to start a franchise, then Universal may have more of a problem on its hands. Expect Jekyll to hit screens late 2010, early 2011.

Keanu Reeves in for new 'Jekyll' [Hollywood Reporter]

Reeves's Company Films has been circling round this project for a while now, but it was only a couple days ago that studio Morgan Creek gave Passengers the green light. Written by Jonathan Spaihts, Passengers takes place on an ark ship, making a centuries-long interstellar voyage to a new planet. All the passengers are being held in suspended animation until they arrive, but a computer glitch causes Reeves's character to wake up nearly a century too early. Faced with dying alone on a cold, vast spaceship, he decides to revive a beautiful woman to be his companion.

Spaihts's screenplay has been talked about in Hollywood circles for some time. It placed third on the 2007 edition of the Black List, an annual list of the best screenplays that, for whatever reason, remain unproduced. A script review by screenwriter Joel Haber posted in January 2008 offers some rather cryptic hints as to what one might expect from the story - keeping in mind there will be plenty of revisions and rewrites before filming even begins.

Here are the choice quotes from Haber's review of Passengers, for a production company that ultimately passed on the screenplay:

Passengers is unique and thoughtful science fiction film that has the added benefit of not requiring an exorbitant budget to produce, due to a small cast, single primary location, and few serious effects shots...

The film's potential to be made for a budget lower than most Sci-Fi films suggests some commercial viability. Of course, its more intimate, dramatic and less action-oriented nature suggest it will never become a blockbuster...

[The concept] is both unique and thought provoking. As an audience, we can easily empathize with Jim and Aurora, and wrestle with their dilemmas ourselves. The film is an excellent example of finding a story out of a "what if" scenario...

There are a number of plot holes that might not be terrible, but still exist. None of them alone is that bad, but in conjunction with each other, they do weaken the story somewhat.

A thoughtful, dramatic, low-budget science fiction film with minimal special effects...that stars Keanu Reeves? Color me intrigued. Although I'd love to know how you can apparently cram so many plot holes into the classic story of "Man wakes up from cryogenic hibernation a century early, man gets lonely, man wakes woman up from cryogenic hibernation slightly less than a century early, man meets woman." That's pretty much the oldest, most straightforward plot in the world.

[Sci-Fi Wire]

Here's just a sampling of the responses that Friday's post got:

edosan: "Dear God, no."

Aleksandr Kalininskiy: "No please please don't do this! Bebop was for me what Star Wars is for folks who were teens in the 70's. So don't ruin my childhood! Damn it all...I will have to watch this movie but..grahhhh"

Mazda Eric wants to make sexy time: "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO this story isn't here! I am not reading this, ((cover ears)) LALALALALALALALALALALA....."

Efflux: "No...No....no,no,no,no,no,no,no. NOOOO!!!!!"

Evil Tortie's Mom: "to chime in with everyone else: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!!!!!!!!"

br4nd0n: "NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Apparently, the consensus to this news was "No." Although some felt slightly more strongly than that:

johnnyichiban: "ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!
ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!"

snowcrash: "ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!
ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!
ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!"

Yes, that's right; snowcrash feels exactly twice as strongly about this as johnnyichiban.

Thank God for RossFenelon and his reasoned thinking:

Alright *exhale*... Now that my co-workers have talked me down off that ledge, I have had a chance to look at this rationally. I understand why he did this. This is just a self indulgent fanboy fantasy being fulfilled by someone with more clout than taste. I have nothing against his appreciation for Shinichiro Watanabe's masterpiece. But if he would take an honest look at his acting "style" and the demands for this role he would see that it would be better for him to step down and let a relatively unknown actor take this role. These are the reasons; 1) He's too old. He has the height and build for the character and also the martial arts background. But at his age, he would be hard pressed to convey Spike's boyish devil-may-care attitude. Maybe in his Bill & Ted days or even Devil's Advocate. Not now though. This brings me to my next point 2) He's too famous; Spike is a subtle and complex character. Outwardly aloof but deceptively deep and introspective. This is his main appeal. Reeve's fame will undoubtedly over shadow those complexities and this film will most likely devolve into a run of the mill Sci-fi action vehicle for the star. Average movie goers, uninitiated into the Bebop world, will miss out on the depth this character has to offer. the only thing that could give me any hope that this movie will be a quality effort is if they announce that Yoko Kanno is going to do the score along with the Seatbelts and the other artists who made the unforgettable music of Cowboy Bebop. Lastly, if Reeve's ABSOLUTELY had to be in the movie in a leading capacity, the only role I could see him filling is maybe that of Vicious. With his deadpan acting style he might be able to pull that off... maybe... possibly... Oh who am I kidding we're screwed.

Others, meanwhile, didn't see this as the This Is A Disaster that it so clearly is:

OlavRokne: "Keanu is a better actor than anyone gives him credit for. In fact, he may have been one of the only things *right* about the Day the Earth Stood Still (the other was John Cleese)."

DaltonKonowalchuk: "Keanu was one of the two good things in TDTESS, the other was John Gleese. The man was outstanding in Scanner Darkly and Matrix. He has a slate of good projects, give him some credit. And he has the looks, the vibe and the style of Spike, he will make it just right. Plus, they are bringing the original japanese team on board, what means they are serious about doing something good with it. As for Jet, bring Dwayne Johnson!"

Final: "I'll disent. I think he can pull it off. Spike wasn't that outwardly emotional. I'm more concerned about who will play Jet and Ed... Faye they're gonna screw up and get Megan Fox or some other eye candy that can't act."

SinsapaCassandra: "i love keanu reeves! u nerds are too sensitive over nothing.. dont kill my childhood!! blah blah stfu. look at transformers. he was great in constintine and the matrix. just stfu already"

Well, that's us told. From now on, we here at io9 will be stuhfooing on a regular basis. Or something.

Variety reports that Reeves will take the role of Spike Spiegel, one of the two leads in the series that followed the bounty hunter crew of the spaceship Bebop through space in the year 2071. The movie adaptation will be written by Peter Craig, and produced by Reeves' Day The Earth Stood Still producer Erwin Stoff for the same studio, 20th Century Fox.

Keanu Reeves set for 'Bebop' [Variety]

Right now, Reeves is working on bringing the classic Japanese series Cowboy Bebop to life with producer Erwin Stoff (who has the rights and the writer). Reeves wants to play the lead role Spike Spiegel, which is one of the coolest leads out there. Spiegel lives in a future that's more like a space western, where gangs slaughter the innocent and it's up to Spiegel to cowboy around, picking up the deadliest space criminals.

And Western is exactly the look Reeves wants. In an interview with MTV Reeves explains:

“It’s got a Western quality, a Western film noir aspect to it,” Reeves said of why he’s such a big fan of Shinichiro Watanabe and Keiko Nobumoto’s groundbreaking series. “It’s got so much style to it, and that’s part of its appeal. That kind of Old West, bordertown, low-tech science fiction aspect.”

All Reeves needs now is a production designer, and I'd love to get your thoughts on who should make Cowboy Bebop a reality.

I have to admit Keanu has the look, but Spiegel is a very complicated hero — way more complicated than, "Whoa, noodles." So I have my doubts about this casting, but still, Reeves gets big points for being a dedicated fan. Plus there's the fact that Reeves and company want to cram the whole series into one movie, which could be terribly disjointed and confusing.

“Yeah, it’s so episodic and so disconnected. We’re trying to figure out what pieces to put together to tell one story,” he explained. “Because it’s such a short form, to make a 2 hour version [will be tough]. And it’s got so much of an origin-story obligation; you’ve got to get people up to speed, but you don’t want to do much of that. There are a lot of things to take into consideration, but we think we can do something good.”

Which means should they make the entire movie, you'll get the operatic ending that we've all come to love, but can he pull this off?

[MTV]

Reeves talked to the LA Times about the new version of the classic, which is released this Friday:

I'm not a big remake guy so the question was, 'Why?' ...Scott [Derrickson, director of the remake] had a why. He had a real respect, not a reverence, but a real appreciation for the original. He thought that story of the alien coming to Earth with a warning, a perspective outside of what humans can see, was a worthwhile tale, and he's right.

Worthwhile, yes, but doesn't that mean that everyone could've just watched the original and gotten exactly the same worth? Or is the sight of Jennifer Connolly and Mad Men's Don Draper looking concerned somehow more helpful in teaching us an important lesson?

Keanu Reeves' freaky flights of fancy [LA Times]

Klaatu Is Kind Of A Dick

"We Should Stay And Fight"

The Day The Earth Stood Still opens in theaters on December 12.

[MTV]

Original director Lewis Gilbert discusses how Rennie's seriousness and creepy-yet-handsome appeal made him the most compelling actor for this role.

Check out that icy demeanor, it may have said "cool" in the script but Rennie is chilly. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to see this kind of movie in the 50s. I would have seriously wet myself. No wonder the reboot is all CG destruction and mayhem in the trailers, they have to live up to Rennie and just the sheer shock that was seeing a space ship land on the Earth before it was done one million times after the first TDTESS. The re-release of TDTESS both on Blu Ray and on DVD are out tomorrow, December 2.

Features On The Special Edition BD Release Include:

• New: Exclusive First Look At The New Movie The Day The Earth Stood Still Starring
Keanu Reeves And Jennifer Connelly
• New & Exclusive To BD: Interactive Theremin: Create Your Own Score
• New & Exclusive To BD: Gort Command!: Interactive Game
• Commentary by Robert Wise and Nicholas Meyer
• New: Commentary by Film & Music Historians John Morgan, Steven Smith, William Stromberg
and Nick Redman
• New: Isolated Score Track
• New: The Mysterious, Melodious Theremin
• New: The Day The Earth Stood Still Main Title Live Performance By Peter Pringle
• New: The Making of The Day the Earth Stood Still
• New: Decoding “Klaatu Barada Nikto”: Science Fiction as Metaphor Featurette
• New: A Brief History of Flying Saucers Featurette
• New: The Astounding Harry Bates Featurette
• New: Edmund North: The Man Who Made the Earth Stand Still Featurette
• New To Disc: Race To Oblivion: A Documentary Short Written And Produced By Edmund North
• New To Disc: Farewell To The Master: A Reading By Jamieson K. Price Of The Original
Harry Bates Short Story; Audio Only
• New: Interactive Pressbook
• Fox Movietonews from 1951
• Original Theatrical Trailer & Teaser Trailer
• Advertising Gallery
• Behind-The Scenes Gallery
• Portrait Gallery
• Production Gallery
• Spaceship Construction Blueprints
• Shooting Scrip

While the Gort shooting game sounds like fun I'm probably going to purchase this just for the A Brief History of Flying Saucers.

The Day The Earth Stood Still remake opens next week on December 12th.

First off, they couldn't have cast a better stone-faced, devoid-of-emotion actor. Keanu Reeves, this is your moment. Unless they're re-casting the Borg from TNG. Seriously when did robot-face become this man's signature, and do you believe in him as Klaatu? Also, check out the space man's fancy new powers of mind control. That will certainly mix things up.

It looks like this film has truly been changed from a mere warning for Earth to an all out alien attack. Have we lost the ability to have aliens in movies and make it interesting without all of the CG ridiculousness or did K-Pax ruin that for us?

I will say one thing about TDTESS '08 I'm enjoying the fact that the updates do seem to jive with actual government procedure. I like that they closed down all the streets and shoved him in a super-secret underground bunker.

There is no reason to remake something that is absolutely perfect. A big reason for that is that there are hundreds of thousands of unproduced screenplays which will never see the light of Harvey Weinstein's desk, and there's a good chance that a couple thousand of those screenplays are actually brilliant. But there's another reason nobody should ever remake a movie as wonderful as 1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still, and that's because it is an affront to everything good about humanity.

Remakes insinuate that there was something deficient about the original movie, that it's somehow necessary to update the film for today's audiences. The vast majority of the cinema-going crowd will watch the version with the actors they know in an instant, and never bother to rent the first one. I'm no exception: I've never seen the 1960 Ocean's Eleven, 1969's The Italian Job, or even every episode of the British The Office. In those cases, that's probably okay — heist flicks work better with shinier cars and newer cameras, and the American workplace has its own set of unique frustrations and comedic opportunities.

The Day the Earth Stood Still, however, is still painfully relevant in every way. Julian Blaustein, its producer, read over 200 short stories in the science fiction literature of the day; his selection of Harry Bates's "Farewell to the Master," and screenwriter Edmund H. North's adaptation, doesn't miss a beat. We're still fighting all the time — the petty squabbles of our nation's leaders still prevent us from reaching any kind of agreement that would, say, stop genocide in Darfur, for example. A culture of fear and greed persists, especially in Bush's America, making it entirely plausible that an alien landing in D.C. would be subject to imprisonment, thievery, and — oh, yeah — hasty gunshots. We might be afraid of terrorists now instead of communists, but we still haven't managed to end nuclear proliferation and create lasting worldwide peace. I think there's still quite a lot to The Day the Earth Stood Still's message that we might pose a threat to the rest of the universe if we can't get a grip on our violent tendencies; and I think Klaatu's non-destructive way of shocking humanity into action is even more brilliant today.

Sometimes the reason to remake something is that the idea is still golden, but the execution of it was limited by the times. Well, I really don't see anyone convincing me that that is the case here. The special effects did just what they needed to do; maybe Gort vaporizing military weapons wasn't as advanced as liquid metal crawling its way up Neo's body, but Gort's thing shot a chill through my spine much faster. The seamlessness of the spaceship, which was recreated with the painstaking application of putty for each shot, added such a fantastic thrill — that simple effect is more meaningful than a thousand flashy explosions.

The attention to detail reaches an admirable level that I almost never see in entertainment today; for example, Professor Barnhardt's chalkboard equations actually contain terms that are relevant to momentum conservation and dynamics, and Klaatu's explanation of his error makes total sense. Most filmmakers today would simply throw up a sine and a cosine and call it done.

The rest of the production was a cut above, too. Bernard Herrmann's amazing soundtrack marks some of the first use of electronic instruments in film, and those theremins have my ears ringing with sci-fi delight years after my first viewing. Even the cinematography was gorgeous; the use of shadow and light patterns created a delightful spooky mood to most scenes, and nobody can miss the visual hilarity of watching doctors chainsmoke while wondering how the hell aliens live so much longer than we do.

Michael Rennie's alien, by the way, is an example of a truly flawless and understated performance; anyone who thinks that Keanu Reeves can show that up should stop reading now to go smack their head against a wall a few times. I don't want to see any current child actor try to replace Bobby Benson; Billy Gray's adorable portrayal of The Most Fifties Boy Ever will warm my heart for all time.

I suppose the one complaint you could have for a 1951 film is about sexism and racism — except for the fact that there were certainly world leaders of all races in the final scene, and the character of Helen Benson is crucial to the plot. She's a bit of an annoying mother, perhaps, but she stands up to her way-more-annoying boyfriend to save the day — and the world. As far as diversity goes, there's only one non-white star in the 2008 cast, so I guess things haven't changed much.

The Day the Earth Stood Still is a treasure; it's one of the best films we humans have ever managed to produce. It was fabulous in 1951 and it's only matured with age, like the finest sci-fi-themed wine in all the world. The movie packs a huge amount of vision about human identity and aspirations — in fact, it's almost impossible to believe it was made eighteen years before we Earthlings reached the moon. So why in the name of everything beautiful would a person want to taint those waters with a totally unnecessary rehash?

Apparently this remake is happening because 2008 director Scott Derrickson admires the work of 1951 director Robert Wise. Hey, Scott, you know what would be a good way to pay your respects to Wise's work? Tell people to watch his movie, and then stay the fuck away from it.

Images from Wikipedia, twm1340 at flickr, and Vintage UFO.

In the first clip, we see a scene where Klaatu is held in custody after requesting to speak to world leaders. Instead of speaking to world leaders, he speaks to US official who interrogates him. You've probably seen this bit in the previews circulating online. What you haven't seen is that when Klaatu tells his interrogator to let him go, he follow up by using the interrogation device to shock the man unconscious, take over his brain, and steal all the information from his mind that he needs to escape the compound. Then he steals the guy's suit, and sends a screaming noise through the bluetooth headsets all the army ninjas are wearing, which seems to instantly kill them. (It's not clear if they're just stunned.) Reeves' robotic acting works well here: He's alien who is merely inhabiting a human body. Klaatu is way more badass than in the 50s version, where the alien is a gentle scientist. I get a kind of Terminator feeling from Reeves — he slays a base full of hardcore intelligence guys just by sending a crazy signal through their bluetooth devices. He is seriously scary.

Next we see a clip of Reeves with Jaden Smith, who plays Jacob, the kid he bonds with who teaches him what it means to be human. Jacob asks Klaatu why he looks so human if he's alien, and Reeves explains that before he wasn't human-looking — he was just Klaatu. They appear to be fleeing in a truck. Not sure what's happening, but it's clear that Klaatu has become more sympathetic to humans. Talking about the scene afterwards, Reeves said, "Klaatu's starting to have a conflict about a decision he made earlier in the film — he's being affected by humans. He's ambivalent about humans, that they're not as bad as he thought they were." Derrickson added that Reeves worked out the physicality of the character of Klaatu on his own, and that Derrickson really admired the way Reeves embodied an alien slowly coming to be human. The shift you see is physical, in the way he holds his body, as well as in his point of view. And it's true: in this clip, we really do see Klaatu moving and talking in a more human way than in his earlier, Terminator-style incarnation.

Derrickson told the audience that he met Robert Wise, director of the original Day the Earth Stood Still, when he was a film student. Wise advised him to that if he was interested in genre films, he ought to make his first film a horror film. Said Derrickson, "That's why I made The Exorcism of Emily Rose as my first film." No mention of the fact that his actual first film was a Hellraiser flick — I guess that was straight to video, so it doesn't count.

About his casting, Reeves said, "They knew I could play an alien." He describes Klaatu as "An entity trapped, or contained, in a human body. He objectifies everything around him. As opposed to the original, where Klaatu was warm and fuzzy, more human than human. I'm not that guy." Apparently when we first see him emerge from his spacecraft he may not be the guy we see on film. We'll get a glimpse of Klaatu's true face.

The new flick is in a contemporary setting. So why did Derrickson decide do that? He said today we're not dealing with nuclear threats now, we have different issues. From what everyone on the panel said, those issues are going to be environmental. Derrickson feels that few people have seen the original film, and he wants to spread the story of an alien who comes to Earth and assesses human nature from the outside.

Connelly talked about Helen Bensen, the doctor, and how her relationship with her son provides a way for Klaatu to understand how humans treat each other and their planet. The relationship between Klaatu and her son is still the heart of the film, like in the earlier version of the film.

Derrickson said they're still working on what Gort will look like. The ship is also a very unique design. They tried to create biological and technological alien ship — not a hard spacecraft, more of an organic spacecraft. It will look biological. He says you see this kind of representation of advanced technologies a lot in SF literature, but not so much in movies — that alien races may not be as interested in machines as we are. The ship is ecological, based in something biological. Like a small planet that travels. We actually get to see the ship in another clip.

Later, they showed us the official trailer. The ship looks like a glowing globe, sort of like a mini-Earth. And there is more than one ship: Many have come to all cities in the globe. We see huge waves of some alien tech washing over the world, disintegrating things. It seems like an odd choice, if the aliens are disturbed by humans destroying the Earth, that they would retaliate with a substance that destroys the Earth. But mostly we see it disintegrating trucks and sports stadiums, so maybe the aliens are most worried about diesel fuel and football riots.

Derrickson said what the new film retains from the original is a sense that humanity has a tendency to destroy itself, for a number of reasons (he was cagey about what those might be), but ultimately there is hope that humans may survive.

Overall, in terms of visuals and style, the film looks like an odd cross between Terminator 2 and X-Files. And I mean that in a good way.

CHUD is reporting that the Plastic Man script has been done for years. This superhero movie is pretty unbelievable but I don't want it to get made just so I can see some Hollywood hot shot don the bathing suit bottom, lace-up front costume of Plastic Man.

Jason Segel

Why He's Perfect To Fight The Clam: This man knows how to use his body for comedy, he's practically buck naked throughout most of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and it's hilarious.
Why He May Not Be Flexible Enough: This isn't a Segel flaw so much as a Seth Rogen problem. With Rogen making the Green Hornet movie, Segel may be tempted to go in a Rogen direction, I urge him not to.

Alan Tudyk:

Why He's Perfect To Fight The Clam: Tudyk is a wonderful blend of humor and honesty, a perfect combination for a superhero. He totally sells any character he steps into, be it the pilot of Serenity of a gay rehabbing body builder. Tudyk would make you believe the Clam was real, and a force to be feared, but then deliver some quality one-liners.
Why He May Not Be Flexible Enough: How bendy is he really? He may need to take up pilates.

Glenn Howerton

Why He's Perfect To Fight The Clam: Hilarious member of the It's Always Sunny gang. Glenn will sell even the most unbelievable laugh-at-yourself script, which makes him perfect for plastic.
Why He May Not Be Flexible Enough: He may be too unknown to star in a big superhero movie.

[CHUD]

It's partly true, as Reeves suggested, that Klaatu comes to warn us about the way we're destroying our environment. But he's also concerned about our other naughty behavior, says Derrickson:

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. 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. I think it’s a movie about human nature as much as anything else and how human nature is acting itself out in the world right now.

Oh, and the Klaatu=Jesus subtext in the original film? Still very much intact.

Meanwhile, according to Derrickson, Jennifer Connelly plays Helen Benson, a Princeton microbiology professor who's drafted by the government into helping to cope with a strange occurrence. [MTV movies]

[Film1.nl]

As in the original, Bill and Ted are high-school students who are in danger of flunking unless they create a "full presentation" on the subjects of all their classes. They travel through time and meet the historical figures they're supposed to have learned about, including Gandhi and Calamity Jane this time around.

The main differences are that the phone Bill and Ted use to travel through time isn't an old-school phone booth, but something "funkier." Their band is called the Atomic Gorillas instead of the Wyld Stallyns. The script is supposedly full of "hip" pop culture references for today's kids, like Bill and Ted worrying they're going to miss The Dark Knight. No clue whether there's a George Carlin character this time around, or who might play him. There are a lot fewer "Whoas."

I was a lot more excited about a new Bill And Ted when I briefly thought it would feature Keanu and Alex back in their original roles, playing middle-aged stoners who have made a mess of their lives in spite of all Carlin's predictions.

If we have to have a remake, maybe it can do something new and interesting with the concept — like instead of being the saviors of a future world, Bill and Ted are actually patsies, given a time machine by someone who wants to wreck history but doesn't want his/her fingerprints all over it. And then Bill and Ted have to undo all the damage they've done. That would be totally excellent. [Moviehole]

The Day The Earth Stood Still

The remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still takes a slightly different tack from the original's focus on nuclear wars, says Klaatu actor Keanu Reeves. This time, it's all about global warming. Says Keanu:

The first one was borne out of the cold war and nuclear détente. Klaatu came and was saying cease and desist with your violence. If you can't do it yourselves we're going to do it. That was the film of that day... The version I was just working on, instead of being man against man, it's more about man against nature. My Klaatu says that if the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives. I'm a friend to the earth.

Battlestar Galactica:

On Battlestar Galactica, Starbuck's efforts to prove she's telling the truth are hindered by the fact that her Viper is in pristine condition. Plus she puts a gun to the head of "a certain authority figure" to try to change the fleet's course in the wrong direction from Earth.

Meanwhile, there's tension between Cylons Six and Brother Cavill, over Cavill's unethical treatment of the Cylon raiders. Cavill also picks up a new love interest, whom he makes out with. Gaius Baltar gets laid with a human (as we heard the other day), and his bed-partner cries during sex.

Tom Zarek passes some classified information along to "a new colleague," to stir up trouble. And one of Galactica's crew members learns the truth about three of the four newly revealed Cylons as soon as episode three. (Since that's the episode where Cally reputedly dies, you can draw your own conclusions.) Meanwhile, the fourth secret Cylon (probably Anders) has "jumped ship" after having made "eye contact" with a Centurion. [Digital Spy]

Superman II

The sequel to Superman Returns probably won't feature General Zod. But it will give Superman an adversary with massive physical power, so he'll face a real challenge this time, says actor Brandon Routh. [Comic Book Resources]

Indiana Jones

Shia LaBoeuf gets physical on the set of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in this new behind-the-scenes video. Apparently he's not just channeling Fonzie with his motorcycle-riding, but also doing some sword-fighting on a truck and juggling a switchblade. [TrekMovie]

Lost:

Lost season four episode 10, airing in April or May, features a character named Dr. Stillman, a kind but no-nonsense psychiatrist who reaches a wall with a patient (Hurley?) and has to reach out for help. Also, the ninth episode isn't called "Bakir," but rather "The Shape Of Things To Come." [Doc Arzt]

Karl is probably dead, says actor Blake Bashoff, but the producers hope to have him back "in some capacity." And there was a scene cut from the end of the latest episode which showed the snipers in camouflage uniforms. But we may not have seen the last of Rousseau. Meanwhile, we haven't seen the last of the purple sky this season, but we probably won't revist the Swan Hatch implosion. The Oceanic Six are Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and Aaron. And apparently we will learn more about the four-toed statue and Black Rock, after all. And you won't be shocked to hear that Claire is "in trouble," since Aaron makes it off the island and she doesn't. [Spoilers Lost]

And here are some completely unreliable rumors: In an upcoming episode, Charlie comes walking out of the forest and asks Hurley for a favor. But only Hurley and Ben can see Charlie's ghost. Jack won't have any episodes focusing on him this season, but in an upcoming episode we'll learn how Rousseau came to the island. And that mystery coffin? It's Locke's. Locke actually gets off the island, but then loses the ability to walk and becomes depressed, finally killing himself. [Katiero.com]

Doctor Who:

We posted a low-quality copy of the trailer for Doctor Who season four which appeared in British theaters a while back, but now it's appeared on television and on the BBC's UK-only website. You can see the rampaging Sontarans, the deranged Ood, the killer wasp from the Agatha Christie episode, and the Doctor's visit to Pompeii more clearly in this version:

Meanwhile on Torchwood, there are more rumors that both Tosh and Owen die at the end of this season (in a couple of weeks.) And both Mickey and Martha will be crossing over to join the cast of Torchwood full-time in the show's third season. Finally, there's speculation that because Jack will be less prominent in Torchwood next year, he might be appearing in the four Doctor Who "gap year" specials. [Stuff I've Seen This Week]

Smallville:

The big Smallville death that happens in April sets off a huge new conflict between Clark and Lex, who remains determined to discover the secrets of Clark's cousin Kara. And the season finale "could go either way" for Lex, who's not back as a regular character in season eight. Meanwhile, the May 1 episode sees a "final showdown" between Clark and Brainiac. Final! Really! [Entertainment Weekly]