Forbidden Planet trilogy with James Cameron: Freud, Shakespeare, and Robby the Robot

05 January 2009

John Howell

Following reports that Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Stracynski is developing a remake of the 1956 science fiction classic Forbidden Planet, comes news that he is aiming for a trilogy and that James Cameron has met Stracynski to discuss directing the first movie. Apparently Cameron has been interested in the project for over ten years and met Stracynski after reading a first draft.

The original Forbidden Planet is a unique blend of space opera, Freudian psychoanalytic theory and William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Directed by Fred Wilcox, Forbidden Planet tells the story of an Earth ship's visit to the planet Altair IV after an expedition went missing there years earlier. All the new expedition finds is a doctor (Dr. Morbius played by Walter Pidgeon), his daughter Altaira, and their loyal mechanical servant, the classic sci-fi icon, Robby the Robot. Morbius has doubled his intellect using a device left by the Krell, a civilisation far in advance of Earth's, which died off 200,000 years ago in a night of inexplicable destruction. His boosted intellect enabled him to build Robby.

After landing, the ship's crew comes under attack from a mysterious invisible entity with enormous power, while the Earth ship's Commander (John Adams played by Leslie Nielson) falls in love with the Doctor's daughter, Altaira. Dr. Morbius dies just as he accepts that the Krell's mind control device created the invisible monster by tapping into his subconscious, releasing the darkest instinctual urges of his Id. The Id, ego, and super-ego are three theoretical constructs Sigmund Freud used to explain human behaviour.

"My evil self is at that door, and I have no power to stop it!" Dr. Morbius declares.

The primitive animal instincts in Dr. Morbius's subconscious had created the Id monster attacking the new expedition, just as the subconscious minds of the Krell 200,000 years before created monsters that wiped out their entire civilisation when they first activated the device.

Forbidden Planet is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest. For those familiar with the play, the island of Prospero is the planet Altair IV, the sailors are the crew of the rescue expedition, Dr. Morbius is an updated Prospero, and the doctor's daughter Altaira a new Miranda. Knowing no man except her father, Altaira falls in love with Commander Adams, an updated Ferdinand. Finally, the Freudian monster from the Id created by Dr. Morbius is Caliban.

Latino Review reports that the first movie will be a prequel, telling the story of the first ship, the Bellerophon, the original expedition that discovered the Krell on Altair IV. Straczynski's draft that Cameron read is about this never-before revealed tale.

The second movie would detail the search for the Krell by the captain of the Bellerophon and his crew. In what seems to be the only major alteration to the original story, in this second movie the doctor's daughter has used the device too, and grows into something profoundly other-wordly. The search for the Krell takes the crew of the Bellerophon "beyond the limits of known space into other dimensions, passing from what's known into what's not".

Finally, movie three would focus on the second ship to arrive at Altair 4 to investigate what happened to the crew of the Bellerophon. They discover Morbius and his daughter, who is desperate to get off the planet and out into the rest of the universe, where her power would be nearly god-like. A fate we are spared when Morbius sacrifices his life to keep her there and eliminate the Krell home world once and for all.

Stracynski is a huge fan of the original film and posted this on his official message board:

"Once folks find out what we're actually going to do, I think they'll be most pleased. Forbidden Planet remains one of my favourite films of all time, and I wouldn't even think about doing this project if I didn't think there was a way to do it that would not in any way diminish the original . . . which is why this is the first development in years to actually get to the script stage. Everybody involved is very excited by the approach."

The more I hear about the Forbidden Planet remake, the better it gets. James Cameron's involvement would be a massive plus. He could certainly handle the state of the art special effects needed and the subject matter seems to be just his thing. A military expedition investigating an expedition/colony that Earth has lost touch with that comes across an alien race sounds similar to the basic plot of Aliens 2. Although I imagine the Forbidden Planet remake is likely to have a significantly lower body count. It's hard to imagine Cameron having much time to be involved in the next couple of years though, if reports about his work on the 3D sci-fi extravaganza Avatar are anything to go by. Avatar is not due out until 2010 and the post production work sounds more involved than Titanic.

Still, this is one to watch. If J. Michael Stracynski has managed to make use of the powerful elements from the original movie and developed a memorable screenplay (his past work suggests he can) and Cameron does jump on board, the combined movie making potential is immense. Let's hope we hear more soon.

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