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.

According to Masters, the crew enlisted the aid of a sex toy manufacturer to create a lifelike skin for Klaatu when he first arrives on Earth, before he takes on human guise. Says Masters, alien skin is

made of dermal plastic and silicone. We actually hired a gentleman who worked in the sex toy business. He had the greatest materials I’ve ever seen. We brought him on and we bought a sex toy making machine and now we can make this weird stuff that nobody else can make.

It has an amazing translucency and an amazing flexibility. These are things I don’t usually relate to sex, but it’s apparently what they do. We’re making a lot of the skins out of that.

And apparently, getting shot is the catalyst that transforms Klaatu from his dildo self into the regular Keanu incarnation:

[Klaatu] comes out of his orb looking grey, but he’s more translucent. That’s the CG, to be created by WETA digital down in New Zealand. He gets shot, he falls into Helen’s arms, bleeds all over her. All CG at that point. As he’s losing his life force he becomes less translucent and more opaque. We do a timecut transition, a helicopter trip to the O.R. Once he’s being pushed down the hallway in his hyperbolic chamber, that’s when he’s a practical piece. We rush him into the O.R. and do all these surgery scenes. Until we do the big reveal, which reveals the inner being.

To read more spoilers and juicy bits from the interview go to Rope Of Silicon. TDTESS releases on December 12.

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.

Coming Soon talked to the crew and cast, who discussed why they loved the original and felt that it needed to be remade. Interestingly enough, producer Erwin Stoff understood the original film's message, yet still thinks blowing up a stadium is the way to be as subtle as the first.

One of the things that I so loved about the original movie, aside from all of the cinematic innovations as far as imagery... [was that] it was really the only science fiction movie of the time that wasn't fear-mongering in its themes and conceptions. Most of the science fiction movies at the time really existed to make us afraid of something. To make us afraid of the red menace. To make us afraid of the all of the places science was exploring at the time. They all existed as warnings. This was really the only movie that challenged mankind to be the best version of itself. And that's thematically as unique for this movie as all of the cinematic innovations.

Another interesting moment was when Keanu Reeves discussed Michael Rennie's performance, the original Klaatu,

Watching the film a few times in a row, yes, I did. This one is a little more... he was kind of like the nice guy who carried a big stick. I'm not such a nice... I'm kind of a nice guy, but a little more sinister-ish... You really believed his naturalistic [approach], an almost bemusement and also his frustrations too. In that scene where everyone is around the saucer and they're interviewing everybody and the media is like, "Aren't you afraid?" and [Klaatu] goes off and offers something rational and the guy's eyes cloud over. Again, that's an example of the film being subversive, this guy only wants fear and Klaatu wants to give a rational answer about that. [Rennie] was great.

Again I'm very confused when the producers, directors and cast all praise the original for its anti-fear-mongering ways, and yet they participated in a movie that built an 8-story tall Gort. Sure Gort is supposed to be massive, but not Megatron-sized. I'm really on the fence as to how I feel about an action-movie version of TDTESS, because the most frustrating part of the original was the mere fact that no one would listen to reason. Not that no one would listen to reason, while fleeing for their lives from a giant killer wave. Yet this new poster does little to calm my fears. I guess we'll have to wait until we see what our hero, Jon Hamm, has in store.

[Coming Soon]

TDTESS opens on December 12th.

There are plenty more Gort images to peruse over at the official TDTESS site. But I'm going to have to side (for the first time) with Fox so far on their creation of Gort and his ridiculous collar bones. Why does he need those again?

Granted I still think that Keanu Reeves is an excellent casting choice for an emotionless alien Klaatu sent to our world to warn humans of our wrong-doings, but we gotta be pushing the Hamm a little harder Fox, because I'll take seconds.

We already showed you the entire 5 minute long TDTESS trailer and instead of making you sit through the whole thing again we've pulled out the new bits of Gortness for your viewing pleasure.

Even though John Hamm practically narrated said trailer this is the first time we're getting and up close and personal look at the man himself. Will this remake give us Gort and Hamm drinking and smoking together? Also check out Kyle Chandler from the Early Edition and Friday Night Lights. Good for you Chandler, landing a spot in what will surely be a pretty big holiday hit.

And here is another look at the shiny face of Gort, Klaatu's personal robot body guard who's gonna blow this whole world to hell if Earthlings don't take better care of Keanu, or the planet.

To see even more great stills check out the exclusive collection of stills at Empire Magazine.