BREAKING MOVIE/TV NEWS

Thursday, February 22, 2007

The Return of 'Gort'

According to reports, a feature update of the 1950's classic film "The Day The Earth Stood Still" has been greenlit by Fox, for a May 9, 2008 release.

Premise of the original feature, directed by Robert Wise, based on the short story "Farewell To The Master", appearing in pulp magazine "Astounding" (October-1940) by author Harry Bates, starts with a flying saucer circling the world, then landing in Washington D.C. where a man (Michael Rennie) and seven foot tall robot emerge.

The visitor, 'Klaatu', produces a gift for the President, but a soldier thinks it is a weapon and shoots Klaatu down. In retaliation, the robot vaporizes tanks and weapons with laser-vision.

Klaatu is taken to hospital where he recovers, demanding a meeting with all world leaders. But the nations are too disorganized to agree to this.

Klaatu eludes his captors, signing into a boarding house under an assumed name, meeting a beautiful single mother (Patricia Neal). He contacts scientists to organize a meeting and arranges a demonstration by stopping all power on Earth for half-an-hour so that he can announce to the world that if humanity does not stop the escalation of the nuclear arms race, Gort, and other police-robots like him, will destroy the world.

Gort was played by 7'7" tall actor Lock Martin.

For the new film, it is not known if Fox will adhere to the original short story , set in the future, with 'Gort' (aka 'Gnut') revealed as the true master and 'Klaatu' his servant.





Day The Earth Stood Still Gort 16-Inch Resin Statue