Changeling screenwriter and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski spoke to MTV about his upcoming script for Forbidden Planet and the direction he wants to see it go.
He assured people that this won’t be some cheesy retro look like the original because when the original came out, that was all new and scary to people; that was what people hadn’t seen before, and that’s the kind of thing he wants to accomplish with this new project.
Straczynski mentioned how he saw the project and watched it going from studio to studio and when it was about to become available again, he went to producer Joel Silver and went for it.
I told Joel [Silver] this is how you do ‘Forbidden Planet’ without pissing on the original that no one has ever thought of. When I told [the idea] to him, his eyes lit up. It’s not a remake. It’s not a reimagining. It’s not exactly a prequel. You’ll have to see it. It’s something that no one has thought of when it comes to this storyline.
Straczynski also spoke about how he’s gone about trying to build this amazing, shocking world that we’ve never seen before in film.
[When coming] up with the Krell backstory and who they are, I sat down with some of the nation’s best minds in astrophysics and planetary geology and A.I. and asked them — based on what we know now — what will a million years from now look like? The goal is to put things in there you’ve never seen before.
I’m personally not familiar with the original movie, but from what I’m hearing and from the passion this guy seems to have for the project, it really sounds like it could be something to keep an eye on! I guess the one big question will be, who will direct? It doesn’t seem like they have someone yet and that will be a big factor behind whether this is eventually as cool as it sounds or not.
You call yourself the movie god and you have never seen Forbidden Planet? ….Blasphemy ;-)
They should re-make Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women.
I’m all for a new project from J. Michael Straczynski. Babylon 5 had a lot of brilliant moments, and I loved the characters and storytelling.
Guess this had to happen after the day the earth stood still redux came along.
@Scott —
If I had a nickel or a rupee, or whatever and such.
You show me someone who’s seen every movie ever made and I’ll show you… someone who’s seen a lot of f’n movies ;)