SET VISIT REPORT: The Day the Earth Stood Still in Vancouver!
Back in February, IESB visited the set of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL along with a handful of other sites in Vancouver.
The film is a remake of the 1951 classic of the same name, also backed by the same studio 20th Century Fox and stars Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm.
Directed by Scott Derrickson, the film is a contemporary reinvention of the 1951 science fiction classic, in which renowned scientist Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) finds herself face to face with an alien called Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), who travels across the universe to warn of an impending global crisis.
When forces beyond Helen’s control treat the extraterrestrial as a hostile and deny his request to address the world’s leaders, she and her estranged stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith) quickly discover the deadly ramifications of Klaatu’s claim that he is “a friend to the Earth.”
Now Helen must find a way to convince the entity who was sent to destroy us that mankind is worth saving – but it may be too late.
The process has begun.
Add into the mix Mad Men's Jon Hamm as Dr. Granier and you've got a winner! I am literally upset with myself. I am a HUGE fan of Mad Men, but this set visit took lace before I knew what it was, alas, when we were on set with Hamm and had a chance to talk with him I was unaware of the magnitude of his future stardom. I am still saddened by this but the light at the end of the tunnel is the opportunity to interview him at the press day for DTESS next week. I know, I know, but most Mad Men fans are as obsessive so I am not alone here.
Back to the film.
We were treated to watching a scene with all three leads involved.
Reeves was in blue hospital scrubs and laying down inside a decontamination container of some kind in a Army hospital or research facility. Connelly's Dr. Benson and Hamm's Dr. Granier enter the room. Benson observes Klaatu closely and says, "It's dreaming!"
On cue, Klaatu kicks at his restraints, Granier tells Benson, "It recognizes you, speak to it..."
Benson leans into Klaatu and says, "My name is Helen Benson. You have nothing to fear from us."
Klaatu repeats each word slowly, "Fear...From...Us!"
And cut!
After that, our group was taken to the middle of Central Park – well, not the real Central Park obviously, but a fantastic replication of it in the soundstage with artificial grass and a painted backdrop of police cars and headlights looking towards us. We were joined by director Scott Derrickson, producer Erwin Stoff and stars Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm.
The questions began,
Q: Why did you think right now would be a good time to bring this movie back?
Scott Derrickson: Well, I am a big fan of the original. I had the chance to meet Robert Wise before he passed away at a film festival when I was still a film student. I talked to him about this film and The Haunting. The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Haunting are my two favorite films of his. In the case of The Day the Earth Stood Still, I felt it was pretty self-explanatory. It was one of the first films that brought intelligence and legitimacy to science fiction. It came out at a time when sci-fi was less respected and less intelligent. The other thing is that it was a film of its time period and reflected on the events of the time. It was such a fantastic statement on the global situation. Looking at it just as a film fan, the whole notion of Gort and Klaatu coming out of the spaceship in spacesuits was something that appealed to me. I loved how it was really an alien presence yet it was on our world. You had these three things that belonged to each other and not the rest of the world. Klaatu, and the ship he comes in, and Gort, are so unreal to this world. And they are so tightly bound to each other. When I think about that film, the trinity of the ship, and Klaatu, and Gort always comes to my mind. Lastly, I like the interplay of it being both a drama and a thriller. It has thrills to it, yet it also has some vary serious character work.
Erwin Stoff: One of the things that is so beloved about it, aside from the innovative visuals, is that it wasn't fear mongering in its themes and conceptions. Most, or rather all, of the science fiction movies of that time existed to make us afraid of something. They wanted to make us afraid of all 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. That is thematically unique for this movie, as well as the cinematic innovations you see in the film.
Keanu Reeves: I think what you guys are talking about is what made this film a classic of its time. It was classic, yet it attempted to transcend that. And that's where I came onto it in terms of wanting to take that classic and remake it for our times. We all have the same ambitions and hopes. That is why I was attracted to it.
Jennifer Connelly: I don't have anything nearly as heady to say about the whole thing. I just thought it was a great idea to do it. I love the original film. I think in terms of performances, Patricia Neal was so fabulous. I loved seeing this science fiction film that everyone was so committed to. Everyone took it very seriously, and it was really effective as a drama. I thought it was a beautifully made film. At the same time, it is really fun. It has all of these different elements going on. And I love how Scott and Irwin have contemporized it. I love how it became relevant to us today. I found that very interesting and intriguing.
Jon Hamm: I basically second what Scott was talking about in terms of looking at that first film. Science Fiction is very much a niche discipline. It managed to bring that much more to a mass audience. And it demonstrated, in my opinion, science fiction as an important niche. It enables the artist to be subversive in a way that they aren't really able to be if they are just laying it into a normal story. By couching it into aliens coming to our world, you can tell stories that aren't as approachable. You can certainly take that into account with the fifties. We had the red scare, the war, and all of the societal problems we where going through then. We couldn't just come out and say that America is this sole super power. That maybe isn't the best way. There is a different way we can go about doing this, and that is by couching it in the science fiction aspect. It wasn't us having this perspective, it was the aliens. And that made it more palatable for everybody. Our version gets to that as well. It is a little bit easier to be critical, or less politically correct, when you couch it in that genre as well.
Q: Who's idea was it to make this film?
Scott Derrickson: I don't think it was the idea of anybody sitting here. It was a Fox property. I think they struggled for years to find a way to make this work.
Erwin Stoff: The antidote of this is: In making this version of it, the energy behind it came solely from Tom Roth. He was the person that really felt a responsibility to it. He really felt that he had to try and remake this. And he took it on as a great personal interest. And that preceded all of us working on it.
Scott Derrickson: On that note, one of the things that was very pleasing for me as a director to observe firsthand is his respect for the story and his respect for the film. It is unusually that someone would be so concerned about the overall production of it. He understands that this comes with a certain "treading on sacred ground." This is a 20th Century Fox classic. For me, as a filmmaker, it has been great to have someone at the top of the food chain that has that much respect for the film that we are making.
Q: How difficult has it been to make this film fresh?
Scott Derrickson: It has been difficult. There were a lot of conversations about what we wouldn't do. We had to take a lot of the familiar science fiction staples and a lot of the technological ideas and remove them. We couldn't do certain things, so we had to ask ourselves, "What would we do instead?" I do think we came up with some really fresh and innovative ideas. The film doesn't feel like it belongs. I think if we do this the way - we are doing it - it will feel connected to the original. But it is not going to feel very connected to the films that were inspired by the original. Because it is definitely a retelling of that story. But in terms of the science fiction itself, there are a lot of changes.
Erwin Stoff: The movie will one hundred percent be recognizable in terms of the original film. But I think it has been reimagined for today.
Q: We were told that the film would be green in color as well as scope. That this film has a real ecological statement about the environment. Can you talk about the challenges of bringing that sort of theme to it?
Erwin Stoff: The truth is that hasn't really affected our lives. I was called into a meeting when we had just started preproduction. The company has a mandate to be a green company by 2012. Whether it happened thematically, or it just happened to be timing, there were a number of things production wise that we were asked to do on a day to day basis. It really hasn't affected our lives. There were people that were aware of it around us. They would tell us to use different kinds of generators, or to use different kinds of lights. As far as the movie goes, it hasn't really affected it.
Q: Do you know what kind of rating this will have?
Erwin Stoff: NC-17.
Scott Derrickson: NC-17? Yeah. We have a very strange Klaatu/Helen thing going on in this movie, boy. You will be shocked. To be honest, the subject hasn't really come up about this script. I would say that it is PG-13. The real sexual tension between Helen and Klaatu isn't in this version. We are saving that for the sequel. In all honesty, the subject hasn't ever come up. But you can tell that it will be PG-13 just by reading the script.
Q: Does Klaatu get to say his three famous words? And will we be hearing him speak in his native language at all?
Keanu Reeves: Yes-ish. Yeah. The context is a little inverted, but yes. That was actually something that wasn't in the script, and I said, "You've got to have that."
Scott Derrickson: I actually don't think that was there in the draft of the script when Keanu came on. Keanu was the one that said, "You've got to have that in there." And we agreed. You do have to have that in there. It's the line. Yeah.
Q: Did you study the original film at all?
Keanu Reeves: Yeah. I watched it a couple of times. In the original, Klaatu is the nice guy that carried a big stick. I am not such a nice guy. Well, I am a nice guy. But I am more sinister.
Scott Derrickson: He is more complex. Which I like.
Keanu Reeves: Klaatu had this wonderful sort of ease about him. He had this quality to him. You believed his naturalistic bemusement. And also his frustrations. Look at that scene where everyone is around the saucer. And they are interviewing everybody. He says, "What do you think? Aren't you afraid?" And the guy goes off and his eyes cloud over. It's another example of the film being subversive. The media only wants fear, and he wants this rational answer about that.
Q: Do you feel any responsibility to honoring these great roles? The original contains some of the best performances in a science fiction film.
Jennifer Connelly: Oh, absolutely. She did such marvelous work. I really loved what Patricia Neal did. I don't want to sound bad, but I am a little off the hook. My character has been reconfigured so much. In terms of my vocation and what I do, I have a very different job in this version of it. To me, she feels quite different from Patricia Neal's character. It is really a departure. But at the same time, I aspire not to disappoint people. I have much respect for what she did.
Q: The original film was a Christ allegory. To what degree is that apparent in this new film?
Scott Derrickson: Well, it is built into the narrative so inexplicably. To the degree that it is in the original, it is in ours. It probably isn't as direct or as obvious. There are some metaphors in the original that we don't have in this one. Of course, Keanu has done that before.
Keanu Reeves: You could call it Christian. But I am not Christ. I am not a carpenter.
Scott Derrickson: It is in there in the same narrative fashion as it was in the original. Which is one of the appealing things about it. You can look at it in the lines of these other films that have that Christ-myth narrative. It is a strong storytelling technique.
Q: Can you talk about filming with John Cleese?
Scott Derrickson: It was fantastic. We shot with him last week. We wrapped with him on Friday. He was really fantastic. It was quite a thing to have such an amazing guy come to the set. Everybody loved him. People were sad when he left. He is so funny, and so full of life. The character that he plays is quite serious. I think he liked that he was fiercely intelligent. I think he liked that opportunity to give it straight. To show what he could do as an actor.
Erwin Stoff: It was a difficult role to cast. We struggled with that for months.
Scott Derrickson: He was the first person that we offered it too. We just couldn't figure out who else could do it.
Erwin Stoff: It was genuinely the most difficult role to cast. But who would you rather have make the argument for mankind than John Cleese? Q: Jennifer, what was it like working with Jaden Smith.
Jennifer Connelly: I loved it. I think that was a really difficult part. Our little story within the story is about a mother and son that are in conflict. They have a little bit of turbulence in their relationship. And it has come to a crisis point. Something has to shift. Something has to move. We have a lot of scenes that are filled with tension, and they resolve a difficult thing. You want to hope that they will work it out. And that there will be a transition. It is a difficult balance to hit. To have a kid that can create that. To have a kid that isn't getting along with his mom, and he throws the occasional fit, but to also like this kid. And to have trust in him. Jaden is so charming. And so interesting. And so beautiful. You really want to root for him, and you really want to like him. He has that beautiful quality to him. He is a huge asset. You just love him. And he is fun. He comes to the set, and he is a real kid. Which I love.
Q: Jon, can you tell us about your character?
Jon Hamm: Sure. I play Michael. It used to be Michel. My character was originally French. I assemble the team that tries to figure out this issue that has descended upon the earth. As it stands, there seems to be some sort of back-story between Helen and I. Which plays out a little bit throughout the film. For the most part, I am reacting to the things that happen in the film. And I am trying to make sense out of them. I am standing in place of the audience. I am reacting to a lot of this for them. It has been interesting. I haven't spent much time on set so far. I have mostly been on airplanes, going back and forth. The experience so far has been pretty amazing. I love the people I get to work with. Jaden included. I can second what Jen said about Jaden. The kid is truly astonishing for a nine year old. It was great to work with all of these people.
Q: Scott, how did you go about choosing this film?
Scott Derrickson: I had something very simple in mind for what I wanted to follow-up The Exorcism of Emily Rose with. I wanted to do something that wasn't in neither the fully commercial realm or fully the independent realm. I didn't want to go the moneymaking commercial route. Or this personal artistic route. I wanted to make something that people might perceive as commercial, but would also have this creative and artistic merit to it. That is what I tried to put together. Everything I have worked on since has been that. This film really held true to that. It does seem like a commercial film, and people will want to see it. But, when I read the script, I saw that the general message was about some pretty important things. I don't think there is any greater argument for remaking the original than the fact that the original was such a product of its time. We are in a different time. Retelling this story and updating it for this time period is really a worthy venture. The combination of both the meaning of it, the aesthetic and cinematic possibilities of it, were so rich. At the same time, we have a big movie here that people are going to go see. It has a certain arc, and it is satisfying. It was not a hard choice to do it.
Q: Do you look at other recent remakes that have failed, like The Invasion, and try to learn from their mistakes?
Scott Derrickson: I couldn't take any lessons from that movie because I didn't see it.
Erwin Stoff: I didn't see The Invasion either. But one of the things you want to be sure of, and this is true of any movie, is that you are not simply building a house. You have to have a strong foundation. This rests on a foundation that is solid and has a reason for existing. Those movies that are built on weak ground, they don't come out well. The lesson, period, is to know why you are making a movie. On a difficult day, there is something to go back to. You can always go back to the reason that got you to do it in the first place. And that is the reason that always gets you out of a difficult day.
Scott Derrickson: It is interesting that you bring up Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I didn't see the new Invasion. But one of the things I remember saying is that a fairly good target for doing this remake was Philip Kaufman's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1979. I hadn't seen the original until after I saw the remake, which I saw at the drive-in. It had a huge impact on me. It was a very strange movie for the time it came out. I really thought that the Kaufman film was a great update. It is an original film in terms of taking the same story and turning it towards its time. I had that updating in mind as a comparison for this film.
Q: Jennifer, we heard you giving input on the script in the other room, when you were shooting your scene. Is that something you do a lot?
Jennifer Connelly: Well, usually just when it pertains to me trying to understand what I am doing. My goal is to always convince myself, so that I can have a leg up on being hopefully convincing. In that instance today, there are things that are fully articulated in the script. It was an issue of time lapse. I didn't know what they had planned between that scene and the next. Sometimes things change. I just wanted to check and see what we would be cutting to. I wanted to know what I would be walking into in the next scene. I think we are all pretty collaborative. I do get obsessive when I start working. And I can't stop thinking about it. I can't stop reading the script. I do often come up with thoughts. Sometimes they are horrible. Some of them are hopefully constructive. I try to look at everything from my character's point of view. Sometimes I will read it a different way than Scott. Scott has been really marvelous in entertaining those thoughts.
Erwin Stoff: In addendum to that, one of the things that have made this a real fun and less stressful experience than usual is the collaboration. The stress of taking on a big movie is that sometimes when you begin filming, the script isn't done. It is completely counterintuitive. It seems like the more the wheel spins on you, the more flux the script is in, and more is being written on the fly. For a number of reasons: a) a great job was done on the script and b) Because of the impending writer's strike, we were dealing with an excellent deadline. We had an excellent, finished, locked, done script. For a movie of this size, it is completely counterintuitive. But again, for a movie of this size, that is a very unusual thing. Since the script was done, it freed up everyone, and allowed them to ask a lot of questions. They were able to ask more questions because they were working under the framework of a structure that was on a full plate.
Q: How much have you relied on current technology in the film?
Scott Derrickson: I did want to avoid making a movie about technology. I think that science fiction, certainly for the last number of decades, has been focused on that. It doesn't all have to be hi-tech. We didn't want to take our current technology and carry it to the furthest lengths of our imagination. We went in the direction that we should take technology seriously, and biologically, and ecologically. We had to think of it in more realistic terms, yet apply it to a more advanced civilization. We moved beyond hard wear. I think that spawned a lot of interesting concepts in the film. That is where this film, as a science fiction film, has its most uniqueness. We are saying something those other films might not have said.
The Day the Earth Stood Still opens in theaters nationwide December 12! http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_e...mp;article=5834
SILVER SPRING, Md. and LOS ANGELES, Nov. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Today,Overbrook Entertainment and Science Channel announced a partnership to producean innovative, new two-hour television event, Young Scientist Challenge. Witha scheduled debut on January 18, 2009, this marks Overbrook Entertainment'sfirst foray into non-fiction television. Overbrook Entertainment partnersJames Lassiter, Will Smith, and Ken Stovitz will serve as executive producers. The program will showcase the nervous energy, joy and drama inherent inthe ultimate science competition - the Discovery Education 3M Young ScientistChallenge. Cheered on by their friends and family, middle school studentsfrom around the country compete to be named the best-of-the-best. Thecontestants were chosen from thousands of nationwide entries, and this fallthe top 10 finalists converged on NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center inWashington, D.C. for an unparalleled battle of brains and innovation in thisunique science championship. "We are enthusiastic about working with the Science Channel and believe inthe Young Scientist Challenge," said Overbrook Entertainment partner KenStovitz. "We enjoy the opportunity to get kids excited about learning." "When Discovery Communications started this competition ten years ago, wewanted to inspire middle school students to continue their passion for scienceat a time when kids usually lose interest," said Clark Bunting, president andgeneral manager, Discovery Emerging Networks. "James, Will and Ken areincredible storytellers and we could not ask for better, more engaged partnersto help us create an entertaining special that puts these kids in thespotlight they so richly deserve." In celebration of NASA's 50th Anniversary, the 2008 competition theme isThe Science of Space, and contestants will be judged on communications skills,knowledge, teamwork and problem-solving abilities. Judges determine the winnerthrough fun mini-competitions, including: large-scale, hands-on experiments;fast-paced quizzes; thoughtful and engaging presentations of difficultscientific concepts; and an innovation challenge where participants mustcreate something unique out of the "ingredients" provided. At stake is thetop prize - a $50,000 savings bond - and once-in-a-lifetime experiential prizetrips for the runners-up. For the first time, the program will begin with the students in their hometowns, as they hear the exciting news that they've been chosen to go toWashington, D.C. From that point, they are on a whirlwind adventure, flyingto Washington to meet their competitors, making new friends with students whoare equally excited about all things science and teaming with real NASAscientists at a working space center. Viewers will be with the kids everystep of the way, from high-anxiety departures from home to the triumphant teamsuccesses and both disappointing and thrilling personal finishes inherent inthe battle to be named America's Top Young Scientist. About Overbrook Entertainment Overbrook Entertainment, an entertainment production company, was formedin 1998 by partners James Lassiter and Will Smith. In 2007 the companywelcomed a third partner, Ken Stovitz. Films the company has produced overthe last 10 years include "Ali," "I-Robot," "Hitch," "Saving Face," "ATL,""The Pursuit of Happyness," "I Am Legend," "Hancock," "Lakeview Terrace," and"The Secret Life of Bees." Future projects include "The Human Contract,"which will mark the directorial debut of Jada Pinkett Smith. OverbrookEntertainment also produced the television series "All of Us" which ran forfour years on UPN. About Science Channel Science Channel is broadcast 24 hours a day and seven days a week to morethan 55 million U.S. homes and simulcast on Science Channel HD. We immerseviewers in the incredible possibilities of science, from string theory andfuturistic cities to accidental discoveries and outrageous inventions. We takethings apart, peer inside and put things together in new and unexpected ways.We celebrate the trials, errors and brinking moments that change our livesforever. To find out more go to http://www.sciencechannel.com About Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge Celebrating the milestone of its 10th Anniversary, the Discovery Education3M Young Scientist Challenge is the nation's premier science competition formiddle school students, targeting kids in the years when research indicatestheir interest in science begins to fade and encouraging them to explorescientific concepts and creatively communicate their findings. Thecompetition is designed to nurture the next generation of American scientiststhrough an innovative and interactive science program open to every middleschool student in America. About Discovery Communications Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) is the world'snumber one nonfiction media company reaching more than 1.5 billion cumulativesubscribers in over 170 countries. Discovery empowers people to explore theirworld and satisfy their curiosity through 100-plus worldwide networks, led byDiscovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Planet Green,Investigation Discovery and HD Theater, as well as leading consumer andeducational products and services, and a diversified portfolio of digitalmedia services including HowStuffWorks.com. For more information, pleasevisit http://www.discoverycommunications.com. SOURCE Science Channel http://www.ibtimes.com/prnews/20081124/md-...channeldeal.htm