Colossus: The Forbin Project is a great, classic sci-fi film from 1970 that wasn’t exactly a huge hit, but it’s still a terrific flick that holds up very well.
Colossus is about a computer that develops artificial intelligence and ends up taking over the world, and it’s been said that Colossus was actually the inspiration for Skynet in the Terminator films.
It would be great if Colossus could be rediscovered today, and maybe more fans in the future will seek it out because, you guessed it, there are now plans to remake it at Universal for Imagine, Ron Howard’s production company. Collider tells us that Will Smith is up to star, and Ed Solomon, the screenwriter of Men in Black and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, is rewriting the script.
Smith has done a number of sci-fi films, and Colossus could be along the lines of him headlining the remake of I Am Legend. You also wonder if Smith’s involvement will mean the story will get a happier or more optimistic ending than the original. (If you haven’t seen it we won’t give away the ending, but let’s just say that in the war of humanity against machines we don’t come out on top).
If the title is a bit confusing to those uninitiated, Colossus is the name of the super computer that takes over the world, and Forbin is in reference to Dr. Charles Forbin, the scientist who invents Colossus. Smith will obviously play this role, and he was played by Eric Braeden (Escape From the Planet of the Apes, The Young and the Restless) in the original.
In the Collider report on Colossus, one fan wrote in, “DON’T CHANGE THE END. If your test audiences don’t like it then tell them to piss off and get a new focus group in. DON’T CHANGE THE END.”
Frankly, we didn’t even know this was in the works until it hit the web, and for many people Colossus will be a brand new movie because the original wasn’t a big hit back in the day.
We do hope this remake will keep some of the darkness of the original, especially how it all ends, but there’s more to Colossus than that. It’s a really well done sci-fi thriller, and the computers look dated, it was 1970 after all, but as a good story it still holds up very well.
There’s so many movies that get announced all the time in Hollywood, and who knows if this will ever meet the finish line, but if it does get made, we do indeed hope it will stay true to the original. Seeing it again recently, Colossus still has a lot to teach us today about the dangers of advancing technology being more important than humanity and morality.
