First reported by Sneak Peek, the remake of the 1951 sci-fi feature "The Day the Earth Stood Still" for Twentieth Century Fox, has now set up production offices at Vancouver Film Studios, prepping a December 3 start.
Actor Keanu "The Matrix" Reeves will star as the alien 'Klaatu', originated by actor Michael Rennie. Scott Derrickson will direct with Erwin Stoff producing from a script by David Scarpa.
Premise of the original feature, based on the short story "Farewell To The Master", appearing in pulp magazine "Astounding" (October-1940) by author Harry Bates, begins with a flying saucer circling the world, then landing in Washington D.C. where a man (Michael Rennie) and seven foot tall robot 'Gort' emerge.
The visitor, 'Klaatu', produces a gift for the President, but a soldier panics and shoots the item out of his hand. In retaliation, Gort vaporizes tanks and weapons with laser-vision.
Klaatu is taken to hospital, demanding a meeting with all world leaders, but the nations are too disorganized to agree to his request.
Klaatu eludes his captors, checking into a boarding house under an assumed name, where he meets a beautiful single mother (Patricia Neal).
He contacts scientists to organize a meeting and arranges a demonstration of unearthly means, by stopping all power on Earth for half-an-hour. After being shot dead, then resurrected by Gort, Klaatu announces to the world that if humanity does not stop the escalation of the nuclear arms race, Gort, and other 'police-robots' will destroy the world.
