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Related Sites: · IMDb: The Day the Earth Stood Still

For many, remaking a classic film would seem a daunting task. To David Scarpa, it is an opportunity to bring a fresh vision to a timeless tale. “You’re following in the footsteps of something great,” the Hollywood scribe says. “If you set out to duplicate the exact same qualities [the original] had, I think you’d be destined to fail. You have to take the story as a point of departure for something completely new.”

Therefore, when 20th Century Fox presented Scarpa with the opportunity to write a remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” the famous 1951 sci-fi drama, he was confident of how to approach the material. “I hadn’t seen [the original] since I was a child,” he explains. “I chose not to see it again. That gave me the freedom to come up with something new rather than being stuck trying to capture whatever it was the original had.”

Directed by Scott Derrickson, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” stars Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, an alien who comes to earth to deliver an important message. Jennifer Connelly plays opposite Reeves as a microbiologist recruited by the government to investigate Klaatu’s strange presence. Scarpa says his collaboration with Derrickson and Reeves proved critical to the script’s development. “When we attached Keanu, there was a lot of work Scott and I did to customize it for Keanu,” he recalls. “When an actor comes in, the whole thing starts to take shape around that actor.”

For example, Scarpa says that the scene in the film’s trailer in which Klaatu faces a lie detector test resulted from his collaboration with Reeves. “The lie detector scene was not in the original script,” he reveals. “We sort of came up with it when Keanu was thinking about the movie. It’s a Keanu scene. It’s clearly made for him. Some of that dialogue is stuff we worked on together.”

Thanks to the careful collaboration that went into the script, Scarpa believes this new version will resonate with audiences the same way the 1951 movie did. “Because the original film is so much a product of its time, it’s interesting to see how that classic story of the man from outer space coming down with a message applies to our time,” Scarpa says. “It translates in a different way. Usually, when a story is timeless, it can do that.”

The timing of the writers’ strike prevented Scarpa from being involved in the film during principal photography, but he says that may have actually been a good thing. “It’s extremely unusual for a big budget movie, but the script really didn’t change much once it went into production. Obviously, we changed it a great deal in development, but once it was on the set it was locked [because of the strike]. There was no re-writing going on…When I spoke to everyone later [once the strike had ended], they all said [having the script locked] was a great relief and a blessing.”

Now that the strike has ended, Scarpa says he’s been receiving updates from the rest of the production team regarding the status of the film. He tells me the film is currently in post production, but he plans to maintain his “hands-off” approach until the time is right. “I don’t want to push to see it until it’s really there,” he says. “I think I may have more value seeing it later in the game. I probably could have seen it [already], but I prefer to let them tinker with it a little bit more until I go in there and give my comments.”

Given the A-list cast and crew of “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” it’s not surprising to hear Scarpa say that when he finally sees the film, he’ll enter the screening with high expectations.

“The trailer looks fantastic,” he says. “So far, I couldn’t be happier.”