The Tempest two other silent versions, one from 1911 by Edwin Thanhouser, are known to have existed, but have been lost. The plot was adapted for the Western "Yellow Sky", directed by William A. Wellman, in 1946. The 1956 science fiction film "Forbidden Planet" set the story on a planet in space, Altair IV, instead of an island. Professor Morbius and his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) are the Prospero and Miranda figures (both Prospero and Morbius having harnessed the mighty forces that inhabit their new homes). Ariel is represented by the helpful Robby the Robot, while Sycorax is replaced with the powerful
Robby the Robot by production designer Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie, art director Arthur Lonergan, and writer Irving Block. These concepts were refined by production illustrator Mentor Huebner and perfected by MGM staff production draughtsman and mechanical designer Robert Kinoshita. The robot's groundbreaking design and dazzling finish represented a radical advance on the conventional "walking oil-can" depictions of robots in earlier features and film serials, and the only previous film robot of comparable style and quality was the "Menschmaschine" created for Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927). However, this did not come cheap: As with every aspect of the production of "Forbidden Planet", MGM spared no expense