If Keanu Reeves playing the lead in the needless remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still has you concerned, here’s some good news for you. It looks like some more respected names are being added to the list of actors in the film. Jennifer Connelly and Kathy Bates were previously announced as part of the movie’s cast, and now IGN is reporting that former Python (and one-time Bond Q) John Cleese is in talks to become a part of the remake as well.

The news is that Cleese would play Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Barnhardt, a character who, “plays a key part in figuring out the mission and meaning of the arrival of the alien Klaatu.” It’s been a little while since I watched the 1951 original, but doesn’t Klaatu pretty much spell out for everyone what his mission and meaning is? I don’t remember him relying on a Nobel laureate to figure anything out though.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m a huge John Cleese fan, and I love the excuse to see him in just about any project. It’s just that his inclusion, if this is to be believed, makes it sound like they are making some big changes to one of sci-fi’s best tales. I hate the idea of this remake in the first place, so talent like Cleese is welcome to at least make it tolerable, but why change it if it doesn’t need fixing… or why remake it for that matter.