Sci-fi remake picks up a Mad Man man

When I first heard they were going to remake The Day The Earth Stood Still, I think I literally shivered. It's one of my favorite films (I even named a magazine after one of the characters from the 1951 classic), and the thought of it being updated for 2008 really made me grind my teeth. I can picture it now: this one will have a wise-cracking hero, the young boy will have a dog, and Klaatu will destroy whole cities before he tells the world they have to reach peace.

And Keanu Reeves is playing Klaatu. Yikes.

But now I've heard that Mad Man's Jon Hamm has been cast as NASA official Dr. Granier. That character didn't exist in the original movie. He'll join forces with Jennifer Connelly's character to figure out what Klaatu is up to. The fact that Hamm, recently nominated for both a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award, has joined the cast along with Connelly means my desire to see the movie has gone from 3% to around 19%.

It's probably still going to suck, but in a much cooler way.