The Day the Box Office Stood Still

I was at the theatre this past weekend and I caught the trailer for the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Things blow up real good in the brief scenes I saw and Keanu Reaves is as deadpan as ever. I'll reserve judgement until I see the full movie, but I am always skeptical about remakes of classic movies.

The film is still a couple of weeks away from its Dec. 12 release, but the hype machine is in full gear. Here's a Q&A with the stars and creators of the movie during a visit to the Vancouver set during filming. It gives a good idea of why they wanted to modernize the film and how they approached it.

Instead of writing about the upcoming movie, many people are focusing on the original and I've found numerous articles about the film's place in history. Here's one that discusses the Cold War parable of the original and another that offers a history of the film.

The movie has also sparked a few retrospectives about 50s films. This trio of long-ish essays (part 1, part 2, part 3) explores the place of science fiction movies in the society of the 1950s. They touche upon The Day the Earth Stood Still, but many movies are discussed.

And then there is this blogger who also offers a trilogy of essays about 1950s sci-fi movies here, here and here.