At first we thought Keanu Reeves was the blue-skinned space-farring superhero Dr. Manhattan of Watchmen, but it turns out we just had our spacemen mixed up.

Keanu Reeves will instead be playing Klaatu, the human-looking alien of The Earth Stood Still. The slick and smart Robert Wise sci-fi flick is due for an update at the hands of Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) with a script from David Scalpa (The Last Castle).

The original Day the Earth Stood Still featured Klaatu descending from the sky in a flying saucer, only to be met by a hostile and suspicious government who fails to head Klaatu’s ominous warning of nuclear disaster at every turn. Fortunately, Klaatu has an ace of his sleeve in the form of a silent, laser-beam wielding robot. With technology like this, Klaatu forces the people of Earth to listen by thrusting the titular action into motion.

This might be good - I was impressed by Scott Derrickson’s work on Emily Rose. Its certainly a relevant topic, as nuclear weapons remains a hot-button issue even in today’s own culture - just look at Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s WMD debate of late. I just hope the filmmakers use the steamlined look of Wise’s film instead of improvised CGI.

The flick is supposed to go into production late this fall or early next year.