Saga‘s Brian K. Vaughan Is Reviving Sci-Fi Classic Forbidden Planet

Whenever a classic film gets tapped for a reboot, there can be a sense of unease—until you learn who’s involved behind the scenes. That’s the case with today’s news that award-winning creator Brian K. Vaughan is scripting a new take on 1956 sci-fi standard Forbidden Planet. He’ll be bringing a truckload of bona fides to the project, having written comics for both Marvel and DC; penned epic indie comics series Y: The Last Man, Paper Girls, and Saga; and worked on TV series Lost and Under the Dome.

The news of Vaughan writing a new take on Forbidden Planet comes from Deadline, which further notes that Emma Watts (I, Robot; Alita: Battle Angel) is aboard to produce. The trade explains that Forbidden Planet is one of those properties that many in Hollywood (including, apparently, no less than James Cameron) have wanted to tackle for years, but complicated rights issues have made it difficult. Those problems have been resolved, so the path ahead is now clear.

The original Forbidden Planet hit theaters in 1956, part of that decade’s wave of space-themed sci-fi excitement that also included When Worlds Collide (1951), The War of the Worlds (1953), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and dozens more. Forbidden Planet‘s human cast (Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens) is these days less remembered than its breakout star: Robby the Robot, one of cinema’s earliest examples of a robot character with an actual personality, paving the way for Star Wars‘ chatty droids, Futurama‘s happily sleazy Bender, and so many more.

Robby—and the designs needed for the film’s depiction of space travel; its exploration plot was inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest—earned the film a Best Visual Effects Oscar nomination, but it lost to the only other nominee, The Ten Commandments.

There’s no word on how Vaughan’s version of Forbidden Planet might update the story, but you can almost guarantee it’ll feature Robby the Robot in some capacity. What do you think of this remake team so far—and who’s your top pick for director?

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