If you were around in the Earth year 1956 then the science fiction film to see was MGM’s out of this world Forbidden Planet, and not just because Anne Francis wore a miniskirt dress in it. No, this one had it all: great production design (I dare you to find a better looking retro flying saucer from film and that includes Klaatu’s UFO from The Day the Earth Stood Still), a great storyline, loads of eye candy in terms of special effects (not to mention Anne) and easily one of the top three, if not number one, robot from the movies, Robby. That hasn’t stopped Hollywood from trying to put together a remake of Forbidden Planet but so far it hasn’t been cracked. Some of tinseltown’s brightest minds, like Terminator director James Cameron, have tried to crack that nut but none have succeeded so far.
But now there’s a new kid on the planet and this guy has some outer space experience to draw upon.
The new dude’s name is J. Michael Straczynski and he created/produced the sci-fi TV series Babylon 5. That’s good news to fans of the genre as the 1990s TV space show is considered one of the better examples of its kind. Straczynski is coming off a high point too; he wrote Clint Eastwood’s Changeling movie and the scribe might find himself nominated for a Best Original Screenplay come Oscar time.
The original Forbidden Planet takes William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and transposes it into outer space. The crew of an Earth spaceship visit a distant planet to learn what happened to a group of brilliant scientists. There they discover that only one of the geniuses has survived, and furthermore he has a beautiful daughter that drives most of the male spaceship crew stir crazy. But there’s some kind of monstrous force on the planet and soon it begins attacking the spaceship’s crew and killing them one-by-one. One of the main reasons why Forbidden Planet was so good is that the story isn’t treated juvenile. Sure, it’s still a product of the 1950s and so everyone resembles the neighbors living on the Leave it to Beaver street but there’s also a lot of high concept ideas floating in its structure. Straczynski has some big shoes to fill but I know that he’s the kind of writer that at least knows he has tolive up to the original film’s legacy and then find a way to exceed it.
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