Klaatu barada nikto.
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" is one of the great classics of '50s science fiction, and one of my favourite old movies.
It has, I gather, been remade, starring Keanu Reeves, and is coming out today.
Now, I don't usually do a lot of these third party press releases, but it is one of my favourite movies, the trailer suggests it may not totally suck, and the press people came up with a hook that totally sold me...
The DSCN dish.
They are broadcasting the movie into space.
The publicity company leased a Deep Space Communication Network dish (a li'l 5m dishes down in Florida at the Cape), and are broadcasting all 1 hour and 50 minutes (digital I hope).
As the press release discusses, the signal would arrive at Alpha Centauri, where it would arrive in a little over 4 years - early 2013 realistically. If it were aimed in that general direction, that is.
This is a really daft stunt, but I love it, and hope the movie lives up to the original.
I may even get to see it in the finite future.
Of course since Cape Canaveral is at 28 degrees latitude, and it is winter, while Alpha Cen is at DEC -60 and a bit, how exactly DSCN is would manage to aim at Alpha Cen is a bit of a mystery... but I'm sure whoever it is being beamed at will enjoy it, eventually.
The Press Release:
"LOS ANGELES, California, EARTH - (Tuesday, December 9) - Twentieth Century Fox makes history by transmitting the first motion picture in to deep space, making THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL the world's first galactic motion picture release. The first deliberate deep space transmission of this highly anticipated science fiction thriller will begin this Friday, December 12, 2008, to coincide with the film's opening day on Planet Earth. If any civilizations are currently orbiting Alpha Centauri, they will be able to receive and view the film approximately four years from now in the year 2012.
In a time when global movie launches are now commonplace, Fox is raising
the bar by spearheading, with Deep Space Communications Network located
at Cape Canaveral, the ultimate in "wide release" platforms. As millions of
Earthbound movie fans get their first look at THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD
STILL, starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly, the film will be zipping
through space at 186,000 miles per second to a heretofore untapped possible
consumer base orbiting the three star system, Alpha Centauri.
Industry watchers and film historians will note that due to the distance between
our solar system and the Alpha Centauri system, it will take over eight years
(accounting for a roundtrip communication) to receive any Alpha Centauri reviews.
The transmission is not a single beam aimed at just the Alpha Centauri system,
but can be received by any advanced technologically capable civilization along
the way to Alpha Centauri, and beyond..."
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I just got thru watching the original in preparation for the new one. I hope it's worth the effort!
BTW, Steinn, your web page is looking totally screwed up today - something is not right in the way it's formatted. I'm seeing it thru Microsoft's (Ian spits) Internet Explorer 6 on Win XP. Other pages at scienceblogs look fine - it's just yours that looks odd! Sorry!
Is it awful or what?
I automatically start hearing the overture to Rocky Horror in my head whenever I hear about this movie.
the original short story has a sort-of twist at the end. i don't want to be specific lest i give something away, but it wasn't in the first movie at all. anyway, if it's in there it'll be at the end, and you'll know when you see it
oh, and "Klaatu, barada, I know kung-fu!"
My favourite reviewer (Mark Kermode on BBC Radio 5 Live) says Mr Reeves fails even to pull off his speaking-wooden-wardrobe version of acting in this one.
My chances right now of seeing a movie in theater on general release are about the same as an actual civilization orbiting Alpha Centauri seeing TDTESS in the next decade...
But, it'd be cool to ante up and the The Rocky Horror Picture Show beamed into outer space. Be about $35,000 unless they offer bulk discount.
To be fair, isn't this the one role where absolutely wooden acting is absolutely spot-on?