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Will Smith as I, Robot
BuR4N writes "It looks like Asimov's sci-fi classic, I Robot, is going to be a movie. Shooting starts April next year staring Will Smith and directed by Alex Proyas (Dark City and The Crow).
Being a huge Asimov fan I have not made up my mind if this is a good or bad thing.
"
I'd say that 'I, Robot' augth to be far more serious that MIB or any other movie Smith has starred, so I'll bracing myself for a big disapointment. But, hopefully, I'm wrong!
It sounds like the actual script and plot will have very little to do with any of the stories in the book. Rather, Fox is using Asimov's name to sell what is likely to be a mediocre movie. Will Smith can be entertaining, but Crap made from crap is still crap. Boy I hope this isn't as bad as I think it will be. They who know me, know me. They who do not shall.
Never underestimate the potential of Human stupidity. -Heinlein
As a real Asimov fan (I even named my daughter Bliss after the character in Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth) I'm still surprised no one has taken the Foundation series and brought it to the screen. It seems such a natural movie script, with at least four or five great movies to pull out of the series.
Anyone know why it has never been proposed as a project by Hollywood?
"The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
Plus: Alex Proyas (Dark City, The Crow)
Minus: Will Smith
Plus: Asimov premise
Minus: Hollywood adaptation
Plus: Will Smith as a robot wouldn't strain his acting ability
Minus: Smith might play the human
Plus: clever ideas, cool story
Minus: probably will be shot as a scifi/comedy
This could be interesting. For the love of god, though, don't let Will Smith play his "normal" character (remember Wild Wild West? That was supposed to be Jim West?). Give him someone else to play - we know he can act, even if he chooses not to.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
Man. I understand your mixed feelings on this one. It's like being a Judge Dredd fan and wathing Stallone unmask and otherwise butcher a legend. Considering Smith's recent work, I have the feeling I must miss this one, as I just can't see him doing a good serious acting job. Can anyone vouch a good bit of dramatic work he's actually done? Seems like a blunder in the making.
Now Wil Wheaton, that's another story ;-)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Well, remember there were the two technicians (Greg Powell, Mike Donovan) dealing with the tests for the hyperspace drive, the Mercury station and the team of mining robots. I could see Will playing one of those characters. What I think would be the most important is casting the role of Susan Calvin, the robopsychologist. I think her role is much more important in bringing out the subtleties of the issues in the robots.
As HAL is killing the astronauts
Asimov: "They're violating the three laws of robotics!"
Clark: "So strike them down with lightning, Issac."
Kind of tells you something about the two of them, doesn't it?
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
I dont really read Asimov and therefore couldn't really call myself a fan. I also havent read the book.So I wont make a comment.
But I do wish to comment on Will Smith. Personally I really like him as an actor. In MIB he was funny. In Enemy Of The State and Ali he played non comic characters in non comic films and pulled it off. Both those films where good [imho] and in Ali he did a great job. I am looking forward to seeing Will Smith on screen again to see how he does again.
So, yes, the point, please dont slate Will Smith before you have seen him in these two [more] serious films as he isn't such a bad actor and may just suprise you.
chris at darkrock dot co dot uk
http colon slash slash www dot darkrock dot co dot uk
I agree. I like Smith, but the ideal actor for this role would be "impassive" (I think that's the word) without being wooden. Smith is too light and breezy. I would have expected someone like Denzel, perhaps; I imagine Tim Robbins could pull it off as well. Maybe Ethan Hawke. They'd also have to look very "ordinary"- good looking, but could have come off an assembly line.
The other problem is that Smith is too babyfaced. I thought the main character faked aging to masquerade as a human, so the actor would need to do an Orson Welles-in-Citizen-Kane transformation. Not too many people could pull that off- and you'd probably have to have a relatively young actor do it too. I just don't think Smith would be credible as an older man.
This is sort of like getting Joe Pesci to play the role of Julius Caesar.
Not only that, but they also mostly unrelated in terms of plotline. Besides the recurring characters, each episode deals with a different theme and crisis. It's better to be made into a mini series or something.
Are they going to change the name of US Robots and Mechanical Men Corp to "North American Robotics" again as in "The Bicentennial Man" movie (which is ironic; the reason for the name change is so that it wouldn't infringe on US Robotics, but US Robotics got its name from Asimov's stories!).
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
They should have considered Brent Spinner (sp?) for this, as he as thought through the nuances (I really hate that word but it fits her) of playing a non-human.
Is it really I, Robot, or is it Caves of Steel, etc that they are doing.
If you want semi-pornographic Science Fiction, why not more Robert Heinlein ??
I will not watch movie with Robin Williams in the if I can help it.
Bicentenial Man, at first, I had thought the movie would be another Robin Williams acting like a crazy entertainer, ala Rainbow Rudolph (Death to Smootchy) or Mork.
However, he provided, in my opinion, one of his best performances ever. Whenever I get the chance to see that film, I take it. The story of his character evolving into something much more then what he was before is unbelievably heart-warming.
It shows that to be human is far more then simply being born as a human. It is a collection of thoughts, emotions and self-determination.
I have to rank Bicentenial Man up there as one of the greatest of Hollywood films. Which is typically the case for true cerebral/philosophical films about humanity.
I am unable to recomend this film enough. If you watched Star Trek:TNG and liked the character of Data, then you will seriously enjoy this film. If you despised Data (and Star Trek in general) avoid this film as it covers humanity and the trappings of humanity, there are no crazy action sequences.
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
But has anyone seen Six Degrees of Seperation? Honestly, the man -does- have talent... But, if you were in his shoes, wouldn't you rather make -fun- movies (MiB, etc.) and make a hundred times the money? I would...
But as has been mentioned, this kind of argument has been made a hundred times before... Look at the Batman's... some whom we thought would suck were actually quite good. And plus, look at Troyas' other casting decisions - Brandon Lee didn't seem like the best choice at the time either (but he was damned amazing).
Anyway, whatever... you know how these rumours go. I remember hearing that Leonardo DiCaprio was going to be in the Lord of the Rings many years back... (thank gods he wasn't).
Silly question, perhaps, but are we all just assuming that Smith is being cast as R. Daneel Olivaw? He could be playing Lije Bailey, who IS the viewpoint character (or "star"), after all.
If you think of Daneel as Spock, yeah, he's the charismatic breakout character -- but it's Bailey who is supposed to be Kirk!
"Ain't no right way to do a wrong thing."
We were taught that the fourth law was coined by a Bulgarian (that's where I'm from) sci-fi writer and stated something to the effect of:
"A robot must always identify itself as a robot"
The writer's name is Luben Dilov Sr.
Doesn't this sound a lot like the book/story line from "Caves of Steel"?
I, Robot is a chronical of the history of a ficticious company, U.S. Robotics and Mechanical Men, that builds robots! (duh).
Having re-read this book just recently I was interested in scoping out how this book would fit into a "Will Smith" movie script.
First Option:The movie is an adaptation of the entire book as a whole. Doubtful. Its a bunch of short stories tied together in the style of "Interview With a Vampire". i.e. a reporter chronicling the history of US Robitcs & MM by interviewing the company's pricipals (most notable the robot-psycologist Susan Calvin).
So, an adaptation of the whole book would leave only one possible "headliner" role for Will Smith, the reporter. But the reporter doesn't *do* anything. So the first option is definitely out.
Second Option:Adapt one or more of the stories in the book to the screen. This is more plausible. Its hard to condense novels into scripts, but its much easier to do this with "short stories". King's "The Green Mile" is an excellent example.
So, which stories would you pick that would give Will Smith the key role and exposure needed?
"Robbie" - the first story in the book is about a robot used as a domestic nanny that becomes the best friend of the owner's daughter. This is obviously the story that was the basis for Bicentennial Man, so its out.
"Runnaround", "Reason", and "Catch That Rabbit" are stories focused on Gregory Powel and Michael Donovan, the robot troubleshooters for US Robotics & MM. These stories are excellent reads and are very good illustrations of the paradoxes and problems that might arise as the robots go about thier existence while adhering the to Robot Laws. But they are, in my opinion too cerebral for the typical Will Smith moviegoer. (read - they would be too boring).
The two stories I believe would work are "Evidence" and "The Evitable Conflict" which present the possibility of a robot with a human appearance. Lots of conflict in the premise that a robot that is physically indistinguishable from a human might rise to a position of power. I thin that would make a good film.
Whether Will Smith would play the robot or be the guy trying to "out" him, it probably doesn't matter. I prefer the former though.
Of course, one they put in the car(flying saucer?) chases and the snappy one liners, it won't really matter which way they go.....
He was the original pick to play Neo in the Matrix and turned it down to do 'wild wild west'.
I'm not shitting you- it's a fact!
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
"I, Robot" is a series of short stories, and there's no single character - human or robot - that appears in all of them. They are all told to a reporter by Dr. Susan Calvin, the robo-psychologist, but she doesn't appear in most of them. :-(
That said, I think that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones would make a great Powel & Donoven casting, if they are going for the comedy angle. The stories with these two are great.
Of course, what I'd _really_ like to see is a high cost/profile TV series doing all the robot stories (from both "I, Robot" and "The Rest of the Robots"), with a changing cast (since there's little character continuation), a pile of special effects where called for ("Victory Unintentional") and almost none when that's called for ("Robot L-76 Goes Astray"). Something like "The Twilight Zone" "series".
The worse would be Will Smith playing Dr. Susan Calvin in a "serious" way (re-writing her as a black man instead of a woman). Shudder.
Any bet which extreme is closer to what will actually happen?
I've reread "I, Robot" recently, and IMHO the two great strenghts of the books are:
- The pretty deep analysis of the interactions between the 3 laws of robotics. Hollywood's track record in butchering anything subtle or complex in a sci-fi novel is amazing. Think about "The minority report". Dick's original idea is that knowing the future changes it. In the movie, it becomes a boring story about free will. Think about the recent "planet of the apes" or "screamers". It's sad but Hollywood's tendancy is to reduce sci-fi to eye-candy and bland plots.
- The unusual, unnerving, yet strangely attaching character of Dr. Susan Calvin. She's central to the stories as she bridges the gap between robots and humans. I know Will Smith has a lot of talent, but I don't think he can play her role effectively. She's supposed to be plain, cold, arrogant and inflexible. I don't know of any American actress who matches this description. So her character will most probably disappear or its importance be greatly diminished.
So basically, we should expect a poor crime plot (not too complex, Joe Sixpack must understand); we'll see scores of nicely rendered robots joking with Will Smith. And maybe a couple blaster gun fights. So sad...
It would be nice to be sure of anything the way some people are of everything.
The making-of book (which I thumbed through at Barnes & Noble) was fairly amusing--the scriptwriter was very defensive about how he had written a faithful adaptation of the original book before the producers hacked it to match their initial story concept. I wish more people in Hollywood had the grace to apologize for what they've inflicted on us... =)
I've. Four times. And it's almost impossible Will Smith could represent the robots. Many aren't even humanoid.
However, he could be a GOOD choice for either Powell or Donovan, who represent the "human part" in most stories (in the others is represented by Susan Calvin).