Plan 9 Remake: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up…

It looks like history is about to repeat itself.

This story is so rich that I don’t mind giving these guys some free publicity. I think it’s hysterical and I swear I couldn’t have made it funnier if I tried to make this up myself.

Someone is finally going to do a remake of the infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space.

I found this via the cool site i09.com but it originated at JoBlo.com. According to them a production company called Darkstone Entertainment is behind the planned remake of the notorious “so bad, it’s good” classic by director Ed Wood.

Now way back in March 2006 I actually wrote a short piece saying that I would actually support a remake of Plan 9 from Outer Space if one was ever attempted. So why am I finding this story so funny?

Because although these guys don’t seem to know it, it looks like they’re going to follow the exact same path as Ed Wood, albeit unintentionally. When director Ed Wood set about making the original Plan 9, he fully intended it to be a serious sci-fi/horror movie. I’ll elaborate in a minute on the parallels.

Of course any fan of the film knows that it turned out to be anything but – an alien invasion film where the visitors resurrect the dead, and used paper plate flying saucers, cardboard sets, the worst acting imaginable and featured a poor, destitute Bela Lugosi hopped up on drugs leaving the film as his final legacy.

It recently reached it’s 50 year anniversary so is now in the public domain. You can actually watch the original right here if you have 78 minutes to kill. (Trust me, it’s worth it if you haven’t seen it.)

What I find funny is that according to the official site for the film:

“…the remake will be a serious-minded retelling of the original story, paying homage to the spirit of Wood’s film without resorting to camp or parody. The film will focus on the horror and science fiction aspects of the original, but will also be largely character-driven. [the] goal for ‘Plan 9′ is to make a film that honors not only the original source material, but also Ed Wood’s intentions when he made ‘Plan 9 From Outer Space’.”

Sounds noble, right? Of course I don’t know how you can “pay homage to the spirit of the original without resorting to camp.” Even ignoring that, here’s the thing: This particular studio has produced nothing but B-grade schlock films up to this point. The highest budget they’ve had for a movie? According to what I could find: $8,000.

Yes, you read that right, there are no missing zeros in that number. Are you starting to see the pieces of irony falling into place yet?

Hints about the coming quality of the film abound:

- A movie site that instead of using Flash animation, has an animated GIF file hosted at Photobucket.

- A studio home page that speaks volumes: Darkstone Entertainment.

- A director (John Johnson) whose resume includes Skeleton Key, Dark Side of the Light and Shadowhunters (they’ve received a combined 87 votes at IMDB.com).

I cannot imagine that this movie will get a theatrical release, but even if it just goes straight to DVD I guarantee I’ll be buying copy. I cannot imagine a more appropriate scenario for a remake of Plan 9 from outer Space.

Plan 9 (or perhaps just P9) is scheduled to be released somehow on 9/9/09, to coincide with the 50th anniversay special edition DVD release of the original film (which I find funny in and of itself as well).

Official site: Plan9Movie.com