J.Michael Straczynski, famous for creating the Babylon 5 science fiction TV series, has been working hard at getting a screenplay ready for Warner Bros.' upcoming Forbidden Planet remake (which we reported on back in January). Unfortunately though, in a recent post he added to a Babylon 5 forum, he revealed he's had to scrap the current draft because details of the storyline had leaked on the Internet.

"Because so much of the Forbidden Planet screenplay was leaked out," he wrote. "Warners and I have decided to chuck the screenplay in its entirety and start over. This is the direct result of the leaks that showed up on the nets, including detailed script reviews of a project that was barely a week old, and which would effectively destroy any anticipation of the movie because by the time it finally reached the screen in 2010 or thereabouts, the story would be old news. So we’re starting fresh, and we’re going to keep a tight lid on the script this time."

Without knowing the details, this seems like a crazy overreaction. Spoilers and leaks from films are commonplace on the Internet and in other publications; sometimes details are deliberately leaked by publicists to create a positive groundswell. If he's just talking about an outline of an upcoming film, this is hardly a reason to start over. The difference between what's planned and the final result after editors, directors, actors and the studios themselves add their own ideas can produce vastly different creations. Why so much angst over a draft? Even a detailed script review at this early stage means little. There's plenty of room to move.

Think of the numerous different directions the film Blade Runner could have taken based on early script drafts.

Besides, will the public turn away in droves because they know basic plot points? It's doubtful. I happily went along to every Terminator movie knowing full well that in the end the killer robot was likely to end up in a vat of molten metal (or something equally final).

What makes this reaction seem even more unjustified is that the film is a remake anyway. In other worlds, Straczynski will be rehashing elements that were already present in the original (all be it with modern special effects and presumably higher production values). The essential plot elements are already in the public domain. Not only that, the plot of the original Forbidden Planet movie is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. So it’s a remake of a remake of a loose Shakespearean adaptation...

Unfortunately, if leaks are to blame, we might be partly responsible for repeating some of them. General outlines of a possible planned trilogy of Forbidden Planet films were added to one of our articles back in January this year.

Whatever the reason for the rewrite, overreaction or not, it's great to hear they haven't scrapped it altogether. This is a remake with great potential. The original was a nice blend of science fiction, psychology, artificial intelligence and Shakespeare.

I'll let Straczynski himself have the final say. At the end of his post on the Babylon 5 forum he wrote:

"So to the sites that say, 'Where’s the harm, it’s not like they’re gonna toss out the script because we blew the contents of same all over the nets,' well, yes, that’s exactly what it’s like, and it’s precisely your responsibility that a year’s worth of work was destroyed.”