December 10, 2008

Because Extra-Terrestrials Deserve To See All The Wooden Acting And Dodgy CGI That Earth Has To Offer...

According to WorstPreviews, 20th Century Fox has gone certifiably insane by announcing that The Day The Earth Stood Still will be broadcast to intelligent life across the galaxy. Seriously:

20th Century Fox has just announced that they will make 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 sci-fi thriller will begin this Friday, December 12th, 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," 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.
Commented 20th Century Fox domestic distribution president Bruce Snyder: "
We at Fox always like to think big, and what's bigger than a 'galactic' release of a major motion picture event? We look forward to sharing 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' with our galactic neighbors near Alpha Centauri -- and look forward to their feedback...eight years from now."
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.
Prior to its arrival at Alpha Centauri, the transmission of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" can be intercepted and viewed at various points in our own solar system (Distance from Earth – at the speed of light – and transmission time, as follows):
Moon: 0.000000038, 1.1991888 seconds
Sun: 0.000016, 8.41536 minutes
Mercury: 0.0000095, 4.99662 minutes
Venus: 0.00000476, 2.5035696 minutes
Mars: 0.0000076, 3.997296 minutes
Jupiter: 0.0000666, 35.028936 minutes
Saturn: 0.000135, 1.18341 hours
Uranus: 0.000285, 2.49831 hours
Neptune: 0.00046, 4.03236 hours
Pluto: 0.0006183, 5.4200178 hours


-I can't help but feel that if we're going to expose alien life to Earth cinema, that a Keanu Reeves toplining remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" isn't the best example we can give. "The Godfather", maybe? "Casablanca"? Hell, "Star Wars"? Years after we've all forgotten about this movie, we can look forward to establishing alien contact for the first time in history by receiving an E.T.'s lukewarm review of our depiction of what aliens are up to.
In case you haven't guessed, I'm not looking forward to this movie. But maybe somebody who is can shed light on why this is a good idea? What do you guys think?

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