The remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still is set to star Keanu Reeves as the humanoid alien who arrives on Earth along with his robot protector to deliver a warning to the world, change your aggressive ways or the planet will be destroyed by the alien race.

The 1951 film sounds a good match for Keanu Reeves since the character in the original seems pretty devoid of emotion, joking aside though he is a good match both physically and emotionally, and he's a pretty big name to lead the film.

Scott Derrickson who directed the excellent The Exorcism of Emily Rose (Filmstalker review) will direct this remake, or reimagining as they are so fond of saying. Variety has the news.

I think it is a good match and with Scott Derrickson directing The Day the Earth Stood Still sounds like the film has come of age for a remake. New special effects are mentioned in the article which shouldn't be the only reason for a remake of a classic, but I do think that this story has just as much relevance as it did back during the Cold War, a situation that seems to be rising again as countries enter into even more conflicts.

It's a little shame that the rumour of Angelina Jolie as the lead didn't come through, that would have been an interesting direction for the film to take don't you think?