The Irish Film Institute (IFI) has announced that international bestselling author George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones, Nightflyers) will visit the cinema for a special screening of Fred M Wilcox’s seminal 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet.
Forbidden Planet is one of the classic science fiction movies of the 1950s. A lavishly produced, completely studio-bound extravaganza, it features Leslie Nielsen in an early role, special effects that are still impressive, and the first musical score for a film created entirely electronically.
Nielsen plays Adams, the commander of a spaceship sent to the planet Altair-4 in the year 2000 AD. This is to investigate the destruction of most of its inhabitants by some invisible, unstoppable monster. Adams and his crew find two human survivors, a saturnine philologist named Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his guileless daughter Altaira (Anne Francis).
Living with them is Robby the Robot (for many the real star of the film), one of the legacies of the planet’s technologically sophisticated previous inhabitants. Soon after Adams and his crew turn up, the monster responsible for the deaths raises its head again.
The screening is in 35mm and will take place Saturday, August 17. Following it, Martin will be in conversation with Maura McHugh of Dublin 2019: An Irish WorldCon about Forbidden Planet and the influence such works have had on his own writing and career.
Tickets for this special event will only be available via the IFI’s website at www.ifi.ie. Further details in relation to ticket release will be announced in due course.
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