Geeks build computer, computer becomes sentient soon realizing that Geeks are a danger to themselves, computer enacts plan to *protect* Geeks. Computer takes control of everything.
Sound familiar? It should. It’s a scenario that’s been done and done again by the Hollywood machine, in one form or another, since the dawn of the sci-fi genre.
In this era of the remake/tv-to-big-screen, we’ve been forced fed the idea that everything old can be new again — no matter how bad the source material was. I won’t waste your time listing the countless remakes we’ve already been bombarded with, but instead I’ll add to the ever-growing list of remakes to come:
Colossus: The Forbin Project
The choice is yours: Obey and live or disobey and die.
As far as I know, only Dr. Geek and I were even aware that this movie existed prior to today’s announcement in Variety by Universal/Imagine Entertainment that Brian Grazer will be producing a remake of the film and titling it simply Colossus.
Jason Rothenberg will write the script, which like the original movie will be based on the book by D.F. Jones. Rothenberg plans to also incorporate elements from two subsequent Colossus novels written by Jones to broaden the film’s premise. Dave Collins will executive produce.
The original 1970 movie scared the bejesus out of me in a way that a very short list of movies (Kingdom of the Spiders, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Scanners) were ever capable of doing.
I can easily say that there’s no need for remakes, but we all know that ain’t gonna stop tinsel-town from churning out a Planet of the… oh, wait…. umm, Psycho… hmm… a MacGyver: The Movie.
Well here it comes, mostly because we can’t stop it. Government supercomputer goes haywire, locks shit down, stirs shit up, blah, blah, blah… watch the original.
Geeks build computer, computer becomes sentient soon realizing that Geeks are a danger to themselves, computer enacts plan to *protect* Geeks. Computer takes control of everything.
Colossus is one of my all time favorites the computer requiring the “lab assistant”/wife to undress is one of my first titillating memories. I was like 12 at the time.
truly an unappreciated classic.
Comment by Cdewitt — April 19, 2007 @ 11:59 am
I remember watching this moving about 10 years ago and have never been able to find a copy. Luckily, I was able to download (mind you it took 2 months) a copy and actually just watched it again recently. The way the movie ended it seemed that there should have been a sequel. I only hope they don’t bastardize it in the remake, not that it had to be remade anyway.
Comment by Andrew — April 19, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
I never saw it in the theatres. I saw it on HBO or something in the early 80’s.
Given that computers can do things now that they never dreamed computers can do I wonder how they’re going to spin it.
Hopefully it won’t be schlock. The original, was a commentary from a bygone era about the real possibility of what might come to pass.
Nowdays, the Hollywood brain trust, which has been devoid of an original concept for many years, will just recycle an old obscure premise into something that typically amounts to a pale shadow of the original.
We shall see.
Comment by James — April 19, 2007 @ 12:53 pm
C:TFP was a pretty good movie for it’s time.
And I remember they did make a sequel. And it Suuuuuhhhhhuuuucked.
Comment by Kevin — April 19, 2007 @ 1:55 pm
Actually the author of the book did write a sequel “The Fall of Colossus”. Not as good as the first but not bad either. The movie was very well done and I would love to find it on DVD with extras.
Comment by Robert — April 19, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
There was a third Colossus book title “Colossus and the Crab”, wherein Colossus makes contact with an alien intelligence arising from the Crab Nebula.
Comment by Jack — April 19, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
Robert: I’d imagine they’ll wait to ride on the coat-tails of this remake.
Comment by Andrew — April 19, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
I don’t see how this can be done without sucking.
Colossus is an awesome 70’s sci-fi movie (review here: http://www.feoamante.com/Movies/ABC/colossus.html) with a great ending that you only see in movies from the 70’s. I’ve always assumed it was the inspiration for Cameron’s Terminator movies, with Colossus renamed Skynet.
But it’s also very much a cold war movie and it’s difficult to see how you’d fit the storyline into the modern one-super-power world.
Plus, the actual novel by D.F. Jones wasn’t that great and the sequels by Jones sucked ass. If they try to incorporate those story lines…gigo.
Comment by Kelly Parks — April 19, 2007 @ 3:47 pm
I’ve seen the movie about 10 times and read all three books. It’s one of my favorite stories/movies. The monologue at the end of the is awesome, to the say the least. If they capture that feeling then the remake will rock (though maybe not to the masses).
The 2nd and 3rd books weren’t as good mainly b/c it dragged Martians into the picture (I’m pretty sure they were from Mars and not the Crab nebula). But it was a cool story nonetheless, b/c (WARNING SPOILER AHEAD) the humans were trying to overthrow Colossus, not realizing that Colossus was actually their only hope of stopping the aliens. Oh, the irony! So maybe a movie with that story wouldn’t be so bad actually –if done well.
Comment by trans — April 19, 2007 @ 4:53 pm
Didn’t they remake this a couple years ago? Remember that over priced thing with Will Smith that was called I, Robot, and claimed to be based of that? Reminds me of Colossus.
Comment by Mark — April 19, 2007 @ 9:03 pm
I enjoyed the movie—but, it was so British, making reference to the Eddington theory of the expanding universe etc.
I also spent years wondering what “finite absolutes” were–ultimately inspiring me to read
books on early 20th century mathematical logic.
I hope the New movie does more than show calculus integral tables as advanced math.
The dynamic programming scene–where the computers try to find a com path between them was
great.
Penny
” A new language, an intersystem language, that only these two machines can understand.”
Comment by penny — April 19, 2007 @ 9:06 pm
The Colossus series was a trilogy. The second book
was so-so. The third book was bad, but worth reading
for the weird 1970’s aftertaste it leaves…
– Colossus
– The Rise and Fall of Colossus
– Colossus and The Crab
Comment by Noah — April 20, 2007 @ 8:19 am
for a similar genre but an even better (if dated) book – look up
The Adolescence of P1
good stuff.
Comment by Bill — April 20, 2007 @ 10:34 am
I think the very best example of this theme is “the last question” by Issac Asimov.
Comment by Motorcycle Guy — April 28, 2007 @ 10:12 am