Some famous Freudian once said the monsters from the id always make a comeback when you're least expecting it. With that in mind, it shouldn't be surprising that a remake of Forbidden Planet is in the pipeline.
According to entertainment daily newspaper Variety, New Line Cinema has bought the rights to revamp Planet from Lindsay Dunlap and Ember Entertainment Group.
The classic 1956 science fiction film, itself a Freudian update of Shakespeare's The Tempest, made Robby the Robot a star, put the lovely Anne Francis on SF fans' radar screens and let Leslie Nielsen explore his serious side.
Michael De Luca, New Line production president, and Richard Saperstein, senior executive vice president, will co-produce the remake in cooperation with creative executive Bryan Hickel.
"Both Richard and I have been fans of this material since childhood," De Luca told Variety reporter Charles Lyons.
"When Forbidden Planet first hit theaters in the ’50s, the idea of space exploration was a fantasy. Today, with space stations, shuttle missions and probes to Mars, the concept of space colonization is a reality."
A traditional friend of those hungry for science fiction and fantasy in any form, New Line is perhaps best known in genre circles for its bizarre and disappointing remake of Lost in Space (1998) -- which starred a radically redesigned robot of its own -- and the eagerly anticipated Lord of the Rings trilogy of films (2000-2002).
Variety said the studio plans to put the Planet remake on the fast track to production. No casting or creative credits have yet been announced.
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