JMS is slated to write the screenplay for a remake – or maybe a sequel (I mean, another sequel, in addition to the original sequel) to the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. The original film is famous for a) being based on Shakespeare’s Tempest with a dash of Freud added; b) inspiring the look and some of the plots of Star Trek; c) introducing the later oft-cameoed Robby the Robot; and d) featuring Leslie Nielsen back when he played it straight. (Plus leading lady Anne Francis is not uncute.)
JMS reportedly plans to keep the retro look of the original film. (Hopefully he won’t keep the retro dialogue in the romantic scenes; why do male-female interactions from 1950s movies seem so much more antiquated and, well, alien than those from 1930s movies?)
Incidentally, JMS is a longtime Planet fan (as might be suggested by the pics below) and says he’s been “chasing this one assignment for over a decade.”
The glare cut a moment’s wedge across his eyes, which had the color and quality of pale blue ice – then across the black web of the metal column and the ash-blond strands of his hair – then across the belt of his trenchcoat and the pockets where he held his hands. His body was tall and gaunt; he had always been too tall for those around him. His face was cut by prominent cheekbones and by a few sharp lines; they were not the lines of age, he had always had them: this had made him look old at twenty, and young now, at forty-five. Ever since he could remember, he had been told that his face was ugly, because it was unyielding, and cruel, because it was expressionless. It remained expressionless now, as he looked at the metal. He was Hank Rearden.
Given Dirk Benedict’s 
Some 