The Day the Earth Stood Still Interview

Our friends at moviesonline recently interviewed the cast and crew of "The Day the Earth Stood Still", the remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic.  The theme seemed mostly based around the movies central "message" - change.  Mans need to Change their destructive nature on the environment, change of the social issues and times, and a changing Keanu??

Everybody is talking "green" lately, and this movie is no exception.  The central theme is man's destructive nature on the environment and the need for change, but what exactly did the movie and the actors do about the environment during this movie?

"Keanu: All I can.  I recycle, have a couple of solar panels and do some rainforest conservation. 

Jennifer:  Similar.  We drive a Prius.  We recycle, we turn off the light switches when we can and my husband is better at it than I am. 

MoviesOnline: Wasn’t this done as a Green production?

Keanu: Oh yeah, and make this movie.

Jon: There’s that too.

Scott: This was Fox’s first show that was a Green production."

Wow - a green production?  how exactly does that work?  recycled film?  recycled story??  hmmm....

"Scott: Well, the generators that were used. I honestly don’t know all the ins and outs of it. I do know there was a lot of effort that went into making a true Green show. The only effect it had on me personally was that it was paperless and, for a director, storyboards became very complicated because they were all digital and so I never knew who had what and there was no notebook to carry around.  That became confusing. 

I’ll join in [on the actor’s comments]. We got rid of our SUV and got a hybrid but I also believe those contributions are important but aren't, in the end, going to solve the problems. I really like Thomas Friedman, who writes for the New York Times, and his perspective on these issues and I love his statement "Don't change the light bulbs, change your leaders."  I think the larger solutions are going to come from larger places. "

So larger solutions come from larger places?  like a "green" spaceship for Klaatu?

"Scott: I watched the original quite a few times when just starting pre-production on the movie and I think, like I was saying earlier, you need to respect the original film and try to figure out what made it great and what can you take from the original to a modern audience that will work for them.  In watching the flying saucer, from the original, land in Washington, D.C. I think it was the second time I was watching the film through again, what really hit me was the precedent that that set for spacecrafts represented in Science Fiction cinema.  That, really, from that point forward, space ships all the way through 2001 and Star Wars and the Terminator films, the Matrix movies, they have all been represented in a similar fashion which is that they are metallic-constructed machines that are engine-driven and those are projections of our industrial age technology like our cars, our airplanes, these things that are starting to get us in trouble in the big picture and so I loved the idea of trying to develop an alien technology that came from a completely different trajectory altogether and came from a completely different tradition and this was something I had discussed with the art department and everybody. The idea was that this was a species that had a technology that was essentially more ecologically and biologically-based and that's why the ship looks the way that it does."

So when it comes down to it all - this movie truly is about man's need to change.  That is quite a message for a non-message movie.

"Scott: It was something I thought a lot about.  I think the ideas of this movie and, certainly, what I think the movie is ultimately saying....I don't think it's really a message movie.  I'm not trying to tell anybody to do anything in particular, just trying to be entertaining, tell an entertaining story and represent the world where it's at right now"

And what does this movie think we should do to change mankind?

Scott continues, "I love the line when she says to Klaatu, “We can change” and “Can you stop this?” and he says “It would come at a price to you and your way of life” and so I wanted to find some way, at the end, to not just have everything wrap up perfectly and be inconsequential.  There is a price.  But, I decided not to try to dissect exactly what that price would be because I don't know what it's going to be but I know that it's that thinking that matters.  It's that idea that the messes that we've gotten ourselves into as Americans and as a species of the human race, the solutions to these will come at a price and we have to be willing to pay that price so I liked the idea of being able to put it out there for the audience to manage in their own mind what they think that price is and what the consequences of this would be ending the story there."

Well that sure is alot of changing for a single movie that really doesn't change much.  What about Keanu, what changes are in store for him?

"MoviesOnline: This movie is about humans needing to change.  Keanu, is there something in you that you would like to change?

Keanu:  No, I'm perfect (laughter). "

And that really sums up the movie - Just like Keanu, the original was perfect and dealt well with the issues of it's time in a meaningful way - does the remake have the same affect?  Doubtful, but stay glued to find out for sure as "The Day the Earth Stood Still" hits theaters this Friday