Babylon 5 creator Straczynski is still at work on the screenplay for Forbidden Planet. He elaborated a bit on his earlier comment that his remake is "not exactly a prequel." He explained that, while we will witness the fate of the Bellerophon, the ship whose crew vanished on Altair IV 20 years before the events of the original movie, it will be as a counterpoint to the story of the crew of the C-57D and their encounter with Dr. Morbius and Altaira. While this new concept calls for more action than we saw in the original, Straczynski says the script's basis on The Tempest is first and foremost in his mind.

But the big news that, if Straczynski's movie takes off, we may be seeing more Forbidden Planet. Says Straczynski:

"Warners is very excited about it, thinks it's a big franchise for them and a huge budget, so they're very much oriented toward getting it done."

Babylon 5 creator reboots a sci-fi classic ... and a sequel? [SCI FI Wire]

Mania is reporting that the next Crow project is picking up steam, getting positive script reviews and readying for casting. But who could ever play undead rock star Eric Draven, or even if they create a new Eric-like character, can hard edged goth even sell anymore? Plus how many Crow loyalists are even left, after all the terrible sequels?

Norrington told Variety a few months back that his Crow would be different from the earlier versions:

Whereas Proyas' original was gloriously gothic and stylized, the new movie will be realistic, hard-edged and mysterious, almost documentary-style.

Still, I can't imagine The Crow without an inch of makeup, at least. We'll see how this plays out.

/Film reported that Philip Seymour Hoffman and Chloe Moretz were both listed as cast members on the New York Times movie page for Let Me In, the remake of the original Swedish film, leading to speculation that Hoffman would be playing Let Me In's counterpart to Hakan, the adult man who watches after and hunts for the vampire child Eli (who will named Abby in the remake).

Overture Films has since denied Hoffman's involvement, but did not comment on whether Moretz, who recently wrapped filming as the gun-toting pixie Hit Girl in Kick-Ass, will, in fact, play Abby. But Moretz has been one of the frontrunners for Abby (we posted her audition, as well as those of two other young actresses), and her mother has announced that a she has just signed a big role, soon to be revealed, leading credence to this particular rumor.

Another strange tidbit from the New York Times page is the alternate titles listed for the film. In addition to Let Me In, the oft-cited remake title, Fish Head is listed as an alternate title, for reasons no one seems able to determine.

[New York Times via /Film]

The announcement from Warner is upfront about the changes between the original film and the planned remake, which will be scripted by Chad St. John and directed by Shoot 'Em Up director Michael Davis:

The new take expands the concept, making it tentpole-sized, while keeping the original's theme. The story takes place in an orbiting city around the moon, where a cop uncovers a murderous conspiracy endangering the entire city. With a week before his retirement back to Earth, our hero has to choose between walking away with his wife, or taking on a private army with his overachieving ex-partner and wife's former boyfriend.

So the bottom line seems to be that the new film will take the original Outland's base concept of a law enforcement agent investigating deaths in a space frontier city that are being caused by a private interest, while stripping it of the elements that made Outland unique. Since this takes place in an orbital city rather than on a moon or planet, it's unlikely we'll see miners and their performance-enhancing drugs as a plot element. And moving the action from Io to the moon lessens the sense of isolation that gave the original a Western feel. It sounds more like the new Outland will be less a remake than an Outland-inspired film that is using the Outland brand as a way to either attract audiences or ease the fears of film executives who fear new stories don't have selling power.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

Captain Blood began life as a series of novels by Rafael Sabatini, chronicling the adventures of Dr. Peter Blood, a physician who turns pirate after being wrongly imprisoned. Since its publication in 1922, Captain Blood has been adapted five times for the silver screen, most notably in the 1935 film, which starred Errol Flynn in the title role.

Perhaps looking to capitalize on the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Warner Bros. producer Bill Gerber dug up the studio's Captain Blood license and started taking pitches from directors. But Gerber didn't anticipate the idea Michael and Peter Spierig had for a Captain Blood reboot: pirates in space.

"At first, I felt like I was in that scene in 'The Player,' where Buck Henry pitches the sequel to 'The Graduate,'" said Gerber. "But when I took a look at their animatic depiction of a pirate battle in space, it had such a distinctive visual look to it that I said, 'Great, I get it.'"

But, despite the promise of space cannons and starships bearing the Jolly Roger, the plot will hold fairly true to the 1935 movie:

The doctor, Peter Blood, joins up with a French pirate (played in the original by Basil Rathbone), only to clash with the buccaneer when the woman he loves (Olivia de Havilland) is captured by the pirate skipper.

Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing a pirate movie not starring Johnny Depp, and I have high hopes for extraplanetary pirates. At best, it could do for Caribbean pirates what shows like Cowboy Bebop and Firefly have done for westerns, and at the very least, it will still be fun to watch swashbuckling in space.

[Variety]

It's been a year since we first announced that DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, was hunting down scripts for a Twilight Zone film. And it appears that they have finally chosen their scribe, writer and television producer Rand Ravich. Ravich is probably best known for creating the NBC police drama Life, but he also scripted the B-movie-inspired thriller The Astronaut's Wife (which he also directed) and the horror sequel Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh.

And, in fact, Ravich has also written for a series modeled on TV anthologies like The Twilight Zone — but instead of science fiction or horror, the stories featured in Playboy's Inside Out anthology are, naturally, based around sex. Still, the description from IMDB of his entry "Put Asunder" suggests that Ravich would have rather been writing for Rod Serling than Hugh Hefner:

A battling divorced couple cannot keep their hands off of each other, so they hire a hitman to kill one of them, based on chance.

Still no word from Appian on whether the film, like its ill-fated 1983 predecessor, will feature remakes of old Twilight Zone episodes or an original (and potentially pornographic) tale from Ravich.

[Variety]

In many ways, the movie is a recreation of the original TV series with this serious characters taken out and replaced by goofballs who make a lot of pop culture references. Ferrell and company satirize the original show, but most of all they satirize themselves.

I was a big fan of the Krofft Super Show series where Land of the Lost debuted in the 1970s. It was a fun kids' series about an alternative universe full of dinosaurs and lizard aliens, and somebody was always being chomped or threatened with being chomped. Although the show was whimsical, it was sort of like the recent Journey To The Center of the Earth - goofy but snarkless. I couldn't imagine how Will Ferrell's adolescent humor would translate into this universe.

But it did, effortlessly. Instead of a nice dad and his two kids trapped in a dinosaur-packed landscape, we have a self important scientist (who is basically the anchorman, but with time travel on his mind), the hot Oxford graduate student (Holly, played a rather woodenly by Anna Friel) who believes in him, and a sideshow operator (Will, played by Danny Mcbride) whose goal in life is to build a mega casino. Through an accident that involves show tunes and a broken down roadside attraction, the three of them wind up on an alternate Earth where the past, present and future are intertwined. And that's when things get really awesome.

Chaka, the cute primate of the TV series, has been turned into a horny adolescent. The sleestaks are still bulgy-eyed lizard people, but they're kind of scary too. And Dr. Rick Marshall, played by Ferrell with deadpan pizzazz, is the perfect satirical white explorer without a clue. He immediately tries to establish himself as Chaka's master (though Chaka hardly takes him seriously), and is constantly making incorrect proclamations about everything around them. There's a great moment when he thinks the sleestak are guarding when they're actually about to "hit that ass." And even on alternate earth, he can't escape a humiliation he suffered on YouTube.

Part of the fun in this flick is watching Ferrell turn science fiction stereotypes of the intrepid explorer upside down. The other part of that fun is watching him dance to show tunes, pour dinosaur urine all over himself so that his scent will "blend in," and make an ill-advised deal with an alien wearing a tunic. As Will points out wisely, tunics are always bad news.

The plot, such as it is, is pretty simple. The gang falls into an alternate dimension, with the help of Rick's tachyon-enhanced time travel device, and now they need to get the device back if they want to go home. In addition the tunic - wearing alien has told them that an evil alien will use the device to invade earth with his terrible army of lizard aliens. So it's a race against time, and also, strangely, a test of banjo improvisation. Hey, it's Will Ferrell - what do you want?

Somehow along the way we manage to have drug induced male bonding. And boob grabbing. Plus a wide array of poop jokes, which culminate in the biggest poop joke of all. But that's a major spoiler and I won't give it away.

A few scenes go on a bit too long (the drug scene springs to mind), and you may be irritated by the fact that many of the jokes are at the expense of women. But despite this most of the bits are genuinely funny, and I predict you'll be repeating lines from the movie for days afterward. In fact, if you're looking for good science fiction fun this weekend I would recommend Land of the Lost over Terminator 4 any day of the week.

The trades are reporting that DreamWorks has its sights on the Fright Night vampires from the 80s. Honestly, I'm very confused by this move. Fright Night is, at its heart, a basic vampire tale. Mysterious but sexy neighbor moves in, local kid thinks he's a vampire, he is a vampire, kid kills vampire. The only big difference is the inclusion of the local horror TV show host for the vamp slaying, Peter Vincent, played by Roddy McDowall.

So, why remake this? It's classic 80s fodder with bad haircuts and punk rock drop out friends, covered in a cheeseball tale. What could updating this possibly add to the franchise? Plus wasn't the idea of a show about a show played out? The only real solution would be to update Fright Night, the in-movie TV show into a web series — and no one wants to see that. Second are there even the type of actors to take on the parts handed to the original vampire Christopher Sarandon? I shudder to think of Jack Black or Will Ferrell taking on this type of character, who has to straddle sexy, serious with a touch of silly... Okay, a lot of silly — but not stupid silly.

Just come up with a new and fresh vampire tale, please. Hell, you can even stick in the giant fangs from the original as a nod to Fright Night, how about that? If we start down this path, the next step is remakes of vampire comedies My Best Friend Is A Vampire, Love At First Bite and Once Bitten, and I'll be damned if I'm going to sit though a "Hands Off" vampire, slutty doll dance-off remix.

All joking aside, I'm seriously nervous for the vampire franchises of the past. Is this going to open the door for a Near Dark remake? I don't know if my heart could take that.

[Hollywood Reporter]

Before everyone jumps out a window, I'd just like to point out that Strike Entertainment is the production company that came out with Children of Men and helped with Slither, two movies that were tremendously enjoyable in their own very different ways. So there's still hope for a remake about a down-on-his-luck wrestler, no construction worker, who gets his mits on pair of magical sunglasses that reveal a secret alien race living among us and breeding the human race into slavery.

The Rules For Remaking They Live

1: The role of Nada MUST be replaced by a wrestler (I'm open to The Rock Dwayne Johnson, but would prefer someone else).

2: Roddy Piper MUST appear in the movie somewhere, what he's not busy. If not as the lead, then as his dad or the creepy preacher.

3: Keith David should come back as Frank, because he hasn't aged a day.

4: The Magical Sunglasses may NOT be adorable hipster Ray-Bans.

5: The one liners have to be one upped in this. I don't know if someone can top, "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum," but they should at least try, like Bond did with the martini, "do I give a damn" line. Is this possible? I'm not sure but they need to actually respect lines like this. Sit down with a lot of alcohol and drugs and come up with something that can at least live up to the original.

6: The five minute fight scene — this is hard. I say, should the producers or director stray from the amazing plot that is a subliminal alien take over and create new characters or make Nada a woman (ugh it hurts to even think that, but we have to assume the worst) this would be a great place to give a tip-of-the-hat to the original. Recreate the five minute fight shot for shot, no matter how far the remake strays. Sure it's been done but that's no reason for it to be neglected.

But until directors or a screenwriter is announced we'll all just have to hope and pray that this movie remake or whatever they will do to it will be respected.

Clip From Original They Live When Piper Figures It All Out (kind of):

[The Hollywood Reporter]

Latino Review talked to Dr. Strangefist, who had an opportunity to review the script for the first live-action film, written by The Book of Eli scribe Gary Whitta. Dr. Strangefist outlines the basic premise of the new script, along with some of the characters’ newly-Anglicized names (Kaneda is still Kaneda, but Tetsuo somehow became “Travis,” which just isn’t as much fun to scream). Overall, he found the script happily familiar, although it doesn’t add much to the Akira universe:

The people out there who demand faithfulness in adaptations and remakes should be pleasantly surprised, even if not outright delighted by this script; sure, a few elements are slightly watered-down, Hollywood-ized, Americanized – but there is no outright wrecking, ruining, or childhood raping going on here. All things considered it is shockingly faithful to the source material, at times reading like a flat-out transcript/description of the animated movie, and even incorporating aspects of the original manga that were left out of the anime version. It is faithful not only in plot and character details, but in tone. It retains the darkness, the violence, the epic qualities and even some of the themes, though they’ve been tweaked, Americanized, and updated to apply to current events. They are also maybe a bit less complex, but still this is admirable. This adaptation actually retains a lot of the style and, more surprisingly, substance of the original. If you are already a fan, you will probably like this adaptation, because a lot of the same things are good about it.

The other side of that coin, though, is that it’s not bringing many fresh ideas or perspectives on the material to the table. What I love about good remakes or adaptations, what in fact makes some of them good, is that they are opportunities for artists with distinct voices and visions to take already existing works and re-interpret them, pay respect to them but use them to say new things and make them their own. There is very little of that happening here. Don’t get me wrong, as much as I’m talking about how faithful it is, a lot of that reaction is due to my surprise that it’s not a complete bastardization. We’re not exactly talking Gus Van Sant’s Psycho levels of slavishness here. But it’s not a particularly fresh take either. Neither infuriatingly dumbed-down nor invigoratingly creative and exciting, it just kind of exists - at least as a script.

It’ll be interesting to see if the filmmakers take a similarly faithful approach to the film’s visual style, or if they introduce a new vision to Akira while maintaining a similar storyline. Director Ruairi Robinson, who makes his directorial debut with Akira, is certainly no stranger to post-apocalyptic filmmaking, as is evident in his recent short film The Silent City:

[Latino Review via Animated News]

The remake was batted around over that last few years and passed off by director Brad Anderson. But now it's been been picked up by Breck Eisner and today Overture Films announced it would be backing the pic — whose themes fit nicely with today's bioterror fears.

The 1973 Trixie is actually a nasty virus that accidentally gets unleashed on middle America. The virus makes people insane with rage and riots break out all over and the Army is called in, and that's when everything really goes to hell. Sounds very 28 Days Later.

Overture CEO Chirs McGurk explained the reason that they were interested in this endeavor because they were looking for horror that was smart. The script was penned by Ray Wright and Scott Kosar and Romero will watch over as executive producer.

[Variety]

The movie remakes and respawns itself week after week as new generations of teenagers discover it at local rep houses and learn that freaks are everywhere (and they can be freaks too). How can you remake something that has already been remade thousands of times over by its audiences? And by theater troupes who reenact it? Plus, there's simply no way that the 1970s sexytime tale of a "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania" could ever be told or retold in an era of safe sex and gay marriage. These days, Frank N Furter would just get married to Rocky, settle down, and move to the suburbs. The characters we love in Rocky Horror, and that audiences talk back to in cities across the world, cannot be "updated." And they cannot ever be remade in a way more pleasing than we can remake them ourselves, in our local theaters, wearing silly makeup and carrying umbrellas.

MTV Readies Rocky Horror Redux [Variety]

People will probably compare Death Race to Grand Theft Auto: It takes place in a dystopian future where people participate in cross-country "death races" where drivers try to hit pedestrians for points. Starring an awesome David Carradine and a stoned-looking Sylvester Stallone, it combined everything great in the universe. The remake, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson of the many Resident Evil movies, takes place in a jail setting — prisoners race to get their sentences reduced rather than just for the sheer, fucked-up fun of it. That makes the drivers more sympathetic, but the movie less outrageous. Still, the cars look Doomsday-great.

Want to see more of the cars in Death Race? Check out Jalopnik's exhaustive post.

The aesthetics of Wood's original flick already inspired Tim Burton to make a demented biopic about the director — a spunky transvestite who took care of the mostly-forgotten Lugosi in his old age — called simply Ed Wood. Both campy and a serious, touching homage to the world Wood created with his movies, the movie earned Martin Landau an Academy Award for his portrayal of Lugosi. Is there really a need for another director to revisit Wood's greatest work "seriously"?

According to the film website:

Simply titled "Plan 9", the remake will be a serious-minded retelling of the original story, paying homage to the spirit of Wood's film without resorting to camp or parody. The film will focus on the horror and science fiction aspects of the original, but will also be largely character-driven. Johnson's goal for "Plan 9" is to make a film that honors not only the original source material, but also Ed Wood's intentions when he made "Plan 9 From Outer Space". Wood's plan was to make a very scary sci-fi/horror film, and Johnson wishes to do exactly that - create a film that Wood would have enjoyed, or perhaps even made himself, if not bound by the technological limitations placed on filmmakers 50 years ago.

Plan 9 From Outer Space [via JoBlo]

And he wants to turn it into a live-action 3D movie. Written by Jamie Moss, whose only other work was on Street Kings, a cop actioner currently in theaters. I've actually been wanting to see Street Kings (Keanu Reeves is not Moss' fault, after all) and I like the idea of bringing in a writer with a flair for cop action. Ghost in the Shell is, after all, a cop movie. The main plot arc involves solving a crime of the future: non-consensual brain hacking. And I'm willing to admit Spielberg did make one hell of a slick, menacing dystopia in A.I. — as long as you ignore the egregiously awful ending.

Still, I'm worried the film will lose its freaky philosophical edge when translated into Spielbergese. This is a complicated story based on a famous manga series, which has spawned several movie sequels, games, and TV shows in Japan. Fans are going to have high expectations, and throwing lots of Dreamworks money at the movie to meet those expectations isn't the right way to go. Sure we want to see some awesome effects, and a fully-realized New Port City. But we really need good writing and plotting to make sure nothing is lost in translation.

Dreamworks Doing 3D Live Action Version of Ghost in the Shell [Quiet Earth]

• The 1975 movie was based on the 1968 book of the same name by Alexander Key. Sadly, most of his novels, including Sprocket: A Little Robot and Bolts: A Robot Dog, are out of print. You can read and download some of these here.
• Don't let the name fool you, Escape To Witch Mountain isn't about witches at all, but about super-powered alien kids who don't know they're aliens.
• Remember the creepy and slightly spooky overture music? If not, you can hear it right here.
• In fact, want to watch the opening credit sequence? Well, here you go.
• Tony and Tia, the original Wonder Twins, both possess telekinesis, although Tony can only use it when he plays his harmonica. Tia can also telepathically speak to mammals, and to Tony. Looks like she got the lion's share of the cool stuff.
• Unlike Zan and Jayna, Tony and Tia have difficulty controlling their powers, which leads to several mishaps. Like Tia having to free every captive animal who can talk to her.
• Tony was played by Ike Eisenmann, who Trek fans will immediately recognize as Midshipman Peter Preston, who Scotty brings to the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Perhaps if he'd taken the mortally wounded kid to sick bay, he might have survived.
• Kim Richards, who plays Tia, is the aunt of both Nicky and Paris Hilton, which isn't really that interesting, but more mind-boggling.
• Both Ike and Kim would be reunited as brother and sister in the extremely forgettable Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell TV movie in 1978.
• The Twins' Uncle Bene is played by Denver Pyle, better known as Uncle Jesse from The Dukes of Hazzard, which Kim Richards later appeared on as Cooter's daughter. Now that's just weird.
• They encounter Jason O'Day (Eddie Albert) who lives in a Winnebago and travels around the country. He ends up helping them out, and probably made kids everywhere think Winnebago's were cool. (I know it did for me, in fact my parents bought me a little scale model Winnie after I saw this movie).
• The bad guy in the movie, Aristotle Bolt, seems like a genial rich man who just want to save kids from the orphanage. Of course, he really wants the twins for their abilities. However, he does have a pretty cool name and lived in a replica of a Byzantine castle that was built by Templeton Crocker between 1926 and 1934 from lava rock from Mt. Vesuvius and materials gathered all over Europe.
• The twins eventually discover (via their little leather "star case") that they are actually aliens from a binary star system who fled to Earth because their own world was dying. They're reunited with others from their planet, and they fly off in their spaceship for the sanctuary of Witch Mountain, never to return.
• That is until Disney made a sequel, Return From Witch Mountain, in 1978. In this movie, Tony and Tia have been training hard to use their powers and to learn about their own kind. In fact, they've been working so hard that the elders let them have a vacation in Los Angeles. What, two superkids on a vacation in L.A.? Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?
• If you want to see a movie trailer that says 1970s as loud of possible, then you're in for a treat. This trailer for Return features Christopher Lee, Bette Davis, andthe words "far out," "molecular mobilization," and "intergalactic energization." Is it me, or does that announcer sound like the guy from the old Batman TV show?
• In the sequel, Christopher Lee plays evil mad scientist Dr. Victor Gannon, and he uses a mind-control device he's invented on Tony, eventually pitting twin against twin in a battle of telekinesis. Bette Davis plays Letha Wedge (what a name), who has been financing the bad doctor's experiments.
• Sadly, there's no Eddie Albert in the sequel. It was also Jack Soo's final film, having been best known for playing Det. Sgt. Nick Yemana on Barney Miller. It was probably the coffee.
• In 1982 Disney made a television pilot called Beyond Witch Mountain, which featured a return of Eddie Albert as Jason and his Winnebago, but they recast everyone else, from the kids all the way to down to Aristotle Bolt. This was meant to become an ongoing series with the kids and Jason finding other alien kids and helping them get back home, but it never got that far and never went to series.
• Disney remade the original film back in 1995, with some major changes to the script. The twins are now named Danny and Anna, and they are separated as infants (who have full-fledged telekinesis), but are later reunited accidentally when they're older. Land developer Edward Bolt (the always evil Robert Vaughn) finds out about their powers, and plans to use them to blow up the entrance to Witch Mountain... without explosives. Way to use that power, Edward.
• It wasn't as charming as the original movie, and wasn't nearly as well received. You can find out why by watching the first 10 minutes right here.