What does Keanu bring to the Klaatu role?
Stoff: I thought he brought something specific, what it was was an innate curiosity that naivety that’s tempered by a certain degree of cynicism and spirituality. You just know that the guy knows more than we do about the big picture but way less than we do about the world we’re in. And I thought, even 15 years ago, I thought those qualities would be interesting to bring to the character. CS: Since the original film, so many sci-fi entries have borrowed themes and images from it. How difficult has it been to make it fresh? Derrickson: It has been difficult. There were a lot of conversations about what we wouldn’t do. You have to take a lot of the familiar science fictions staples and technological ideas and remove them and say, “We won’t do this, what can we do instead?” I think we came up with some fresh and innovative ideas so the film doesn’t feel like it… if we do what I think we’re doing, it’s going to feel very connected to the original but it’s not going to feel very connected
