![]() “Jake,” the titular cat from outer space, who’s stranded on Earth but able to communicate telepathically (in the voice of veteran comic actor Ronnie Schell) thanks to a high-tech collar from his home planet. All these events seemed to confirm Americans’ worst fears, even for people who wanted to dismiss such theorizing as paranoia.īerry plays Frank Wilson, a government scientist who befriends Zunar-J-5/9 Doric-4-7, a.k.a. The notion that the government had something to hide, and that the populace was never going to get the real story, had become the new normal in the years since Vietnam, the assassinations of the 1960s, the accompanying conspiracy theories, and the Watergate scandal. (The film doesn’t do much with the casting of M*A*S*H’s two commanding officers in one film.) What’s remarkable is how unremarkable this depiction was. The stars included a lot of TV-familiar faces such as Berry, Duncan, Roddy McDowall, Harry Morgan, and McLean Stevenson. Director Norman Tokar had a long history with Disney that included live-action films like The Happiest Millionaire and The Apple Dumpling Gang. Peabody and Sherman, and wrote other Disney live-action movies such as The Million Dollar Duck (about a duck who lays golden eggs) and Gus (about a mule with an uncanny knack for kicking footballs). Writer Ted Key created the comic strip Hazel and the characters of Mr. The Cat From Outer Space wasn’t the product of a bunch of subversives wanting to instill distrust in young viewers. Olympus (William Prince) a Blofeld-like schemer who serves as the film’s primary antagonist, it leaves the Pentagon’s villainy unaddressed. While that piece refers to “the unquestionably villainous figure” of Mr. In a short review, Variety patted the film on the head: “The fun, as usual with Disney pix, comes in the believable sight gags.” “Naturally, the Pentagon wants the cat,” The New York Times noted in passing. Such was the state of things by the late 1970s that portraying the government as a shadowy, conspiratorial, possibly actively malicious entity raised no eyebrows. The film? The Cat From Outer Space, a 1978 live-action Disney movie starring Ken Berry and Sandy Duncan. At worst, they’re secretive in a way that’s in no one’s best interests, forcing the hero to deceive, undermine, and oppose them as he works for the greater good. government are treated as clownish at best. As the action unfolds, the forces of the U.S. A few minutes later, the general tells the farmers, “Wipe it out of your mind, do you understand? You’ve seen nothing and heard nothing.” Then he has his men take their names for future interrogation. “Maybe it’s on the inside,” the colonel replies. “I don’t see any hammer and sickle, do you, colonel?” one says. Soon, four military men join them, each seemingly more on edge than the last. As the livestock start to panic, a farmer and his wife investigate the mysterious light in a field near their house. Until then, I'll wait and hope that he learns some tips from Ridley Scott.Scene from a 1970s science-fiction film: A blinding light descends on an American farmhouse. ![]() He needs to really show me he is actually capable of making something entertaining. The idea sounds so cool that I want this to be good, but right now I'm just not sold on Moore. Hopefully he didn't get caught up in the video game movie stigma with Max Payne either. So far he's been rather mediocre when it comes to war ( Behind Enemy Lines), action ( Flight of the Phoenix), and horror ( The Omen). The premise sounds promising and I'm curious whether Moore will be better at sci-fi than anything else. Not much more is known, but it sounds like a fun project.Īlthough I'm not at all familiar with the original film, I usually take an interest in anything sci-fi given my love for the genre. Moore's version is described as an updated, reimagining written by Eragon and Jurassic Park III writer Peter Buchman. Elliott Gould and James Brolin starred in the original. When their rocket's life support fails last minute, NASA pulls them and the ship is launched unmanned, but NASA requires them to fake the landing and stay in hiding to prevent public humiliation. The original film is a 1978 sci-fi thriller about a group of astronauts who were supposed to be sent on NASA's first manned mission to Mars. Filmmaker John Moore, of Behind Enemy Lines, Flight of the Phoenix, The Omen, and Max Payne, has been attached to direct a remake of Capricorn One. ![]()
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