The Hollywood Reporter is reporting J Michael Straczynski (Changeling) will write the script for the remake of Forbidden Planet for Warner Bros Pictures. The original sci-fi drama was directed by Fred McLeod Wilcox and earned a Best Effects Oscar nomination in 1957.
The film's Robbie the Robot, the first movie robot to actually have a personality, was operated by actors inside the robot suit. In an interview with About.com, Forbidden Planet star Anne Francis recalled one incident involving a three martini lunch and that suit. "There were two young gentlemen who each took a turn wearing Robbie," explained Francis in a November 2006 interview. "Anyway, both very nice young men, they were able to fit into this very uncomfortable suit. One day at lunch, this one young man who was working in the suit went to lunch and it turned out to be, I guess, close to a three martini lunch. Came back and in the first scene where Robbie comes out of the vehicle, when you first see him, we were shooting it that day after lunch. When I was a little girl, they used to have a toy that was a little wooden character with huge feet and if you put it on an incline, it would just walk down the incline. It was kind of like a clothespin kind of looking toy. But this is exactly what happened with Robbie the Robot. He started to step off and it was like his feet took him this way and the top of him started to go that way. You have to remember that this film, I think, was $2 million. Robbie cost a million. We were just along for the ride. You never saw 20 grips run so fast."
Much earlier than 2006 there were rumors of a Forbidden Planet remake floating around. Asked how she felt about the possibility of a studio tackling a remake of the classic film, Francis replied, "You can't remake different people's energy. You can take plays that have been done often with different casts, but it's always, even though it's the same script, it's different because the people were different and the energies are different. It's not going to be the same."
There's no word yet on a director.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
