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I, Robot Trailer Available

thehomeland writes "A new 'I, Robot' movie is coming out based on the Isaac Asimov book series, starring Will Smith. I saw a teaser at the theatre back at the LOTR:ROTK showing, but it looked so much like a commercial I didn't even realize it was a trailer until I saw a logo that said '3 Laws Safe'. Now there's a regular trailer as well as a nice featurette for better details."

28 of 1,086 comments (clear)

  1. You should also be able to see it here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
  2. some torrent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
  3. Shame on them by wift · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's MIB, Independence Day and Buck Rodgers all rolled up and smoked about half way down so you get a burnt taste in your mouth watching.

    I'll wait for it on HBO.

    --
    ....... Thus ends my attempt at wit or whatever
  4. Re:War of the worlds, take 2 by AEton · · Score: 2, Informative

    If it's an especially popular film, it might show up on the weekly/monthly Google Zeitgeist. An aggressive marketing campaign, even targetted at people who use Google, probably wouldn't stand much of a chance, though; archived data shows that people's interests are rather pop-culturey (cf. Sex and the City near its final episode) or holiday-based ("love poems" in week ending Feb. 16).

    Is that the answer you were looking for?

    (And no, on a personal note, I don't think people will buy it at all. There's now a whole genre of sites that look real and act real but are really stupid movie promotions. (not that I can find any of them now) Also, Will Smith is not quite so convincing as Orson Welles.

    --
    We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
  5. Re:Wil Weaton by slugo3 · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://imdb.com/title/tt0343818/

    doesn't look like it

  6. Re:Which story? by Noksagt · · Score: 3, Informative

    From what I heard, the new movie isn't directly based on any of the stories. It started as an original work & was adapted to add parts of the Asimov universe.

  7. Re:They've killed Asimov by miu · · Score: 2, Informative
    They might be referring to the zeroeth law that was added to let Daneel be shoehorned into the later Foundation books.

    The problem is that "protecting humanity" will be used as way to trump the 3 laws and turn the robot into RoboCop, with the 3 laws conflict depicted as a variation of standard drama/action cop angst.

    It might suck, it might not, but I'm 95% certain that it will have very little to do with anything Asimov ever wrote.

    --

    [Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
  8. Chris Cunningham ripoff? by huphtur · · Score: 4, Informative

    "I, Robot" reminds me of a Chris Cunningham video clip that he did for Bjork.

  9. Re:MiB3 by Drooling+Iguana · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'll bet Eando Binder was saying the same thing when Asimov stole that title from him.

    --
    ... I'm addicted to placebos
  10. Re:No mention of Isaac Asimov by zakezuke · · Score: 2, Informative

    I forget which book it was that asimov said the three laws of robotics were to be released into public domain, or rather anyone can use so long as a credit is sited. I know I'm probally one of the few people who actually has read any of his introductions. But near as I'm aware this is the only restriction he's placed on quoting his rules of robotics.

    --
    There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
  11. Re:No mention of Isaac Asimov by venicebeach · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sure there is. The following is from "synopsis" at www.irobotmovie.com:

    Will Smith stars in this action thriller suggested by the classic short story collection by Isaac Asimov, and brought to the big screen by dynamic and visionary director Alex Proyas ("Dark City," "The Crow"). In the year 2035, robots are an everyday household item, and everyone trusts them, except one, slightly paranoid detective (Smith) investigating what he alone believes is a crime perpetrated by a robot. The case leads him to discover a far more frightening threat to the human race. "I, ROBOT" uses a spectacular, state-of-the-art visual effects technique to bring a world of robots to life.

  12. Re:Speaking of Matrix parallel... by silentbozo · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's a common Hollywood practice to cut trailers to "hot" tracks from any source, including other movies. I've heard parts of the score from Backdraft in trailers for all sorts of films, and I wouldn't be surprised if they lifted a section directly from the score from Matrix Revolutions. Yes, when they air it, it's licensed. However, when the editors are looking for music, anything is game (I imagine that the old Napster was a great tool for them, while it lasted.)

    Personally, I think cutting in recognizable sequences from other movies is an extremely risky thing to do, as anyone who can recognize the music cannot help but make a connection (either good or bad) between the film that the music was originally scored from, and the new film...

  13. Re:No mention of Isaac Asimov by cgenman · · Score: 3, Informative

    In his older books, Asimov said that the three laws of robotics could be implied or used as a plot point in other people's books, but never delineated. Many books did in fact use the laws of robotics without explaining them or citing Asimov. I don't know if he changed that stance later on in his life... I'm only about 1/2 way through reading all 500 of his books.

  14. Re:Wil Weaton by Trestran · · Score: 4, Informative
    He didn't, altleast not acording to his blog:
    I just found out that the director for I, Robot "didn't respond to any" of the tapes he saw, including mine.
  15. Re:War of the worlds, take 2 by Lars+T. · · Score: 4, Informative
    When people first heard the WotW broadcast, they thought it was a real Martian invasion. There was widespread panic (mainly I think because everyone trusted what they heard on the radio, thankfully we're all far more cynical now), probably because of stunts like that, but a lot can be put down to marketing spin as well I suppose.

    Actually, most of the panic was just marketing spin.

    But just how much panic was there really? Reports of suicides and heart attacks proved unfounded, and reappraisals of other "evidence" of the panic show it to have been much less than many have perceived it over the last sixty-two years. Media hype seems to be the real monster here, that and the age old American love for "urban legends."

    Even the evidence of the 40% increase in telephone calls to Law Enforcement agencies and the local media in New Jersey that night fails to differentiate the types of calls in percentages. Some people simply wanted to know where they could donate blood, some to know where to find casualty lists, some realized the show was a dramatization but were furious that such a realistic production was allowed on the air, and still others sought to congratulate CBS on such a fantastic Halloween program.

    --

    Lars T.

    To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  16. The 3 laws by qwertyatwork · · Score: 5, Informative

    Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics"

    1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

    2: A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

    3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

  17. Re:They've killed Asimov by maswan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Oh, but they did break the three laws of robotics in the most obvious way in one of his stories, a number of robots were manufactured without the first law (never harm a human being...).

    The plot of the story was that one of these robots made it into a large population of robots with all three laws and Susan Calvin had to sort it out (while of course saying that these lesser roboticists were morons for creating robots without the first law).

    Unfortunately I do not remember the title of the short story, nor the collection in which it appeared, it was over 10 years I read it. Perhaps someone else can help me with that? This would probably be a fairly early collection of short stories by Asimov.

    To help the memory, the reason they were created was to serve as help on a science station (in space, I think), where humans were submitted to low levels of radiation which killed the positronic brains instantly.

    The scientists accepted the low risk of harm for the sake of observing whatever it was, but the the three laws of robotics didn't allow the robots to idly stand by and let even that low level of harm happen. And when they rushed in, they were instantly killed by radiation.

  18. It doesn't feel like I-Robot by MC_Cancer_Pants · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's because it's not I-Robot. They chose to use a script called "hardwired" instead of the script written by Harlan Ellison. The decision to name it 'I, Robot' was made by some fox execs after the fact.

    There is no doubt that this is nothing more than Men In Black and Independence Day. Will smith is not a sci-fi actor and he shouldn't be. He turned sci-fi into a black commedy children's movie. I'm just glad that he declined the role of Neo in The Matrix, as he was originally casted to do.

    1. Re:It doesn't feel like I-Robot by Schemat1c · · Score: 3, Informative

      That's because it's not I-Robot. They chose to use a script called "hardwired" instead of the script written by Harlan Ellison. The decision to name it 'I, Robot' was made by some fox execs after the fact.

      The movie seems to revolve around the 3 robotic laws that Asimov came up with. So, the title seems appropiate in at least acknowledging that. The 3 laws have been used many times in non Asimov stories.

      --

      "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
  19. Re:They've killed Asimov by CaptainCaveman_2002 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The story is "Little Lost Robot." A portion of the NS-2 (or "Nestor") line of robots were made with a *PARTIAL* first law -- "No robot may harm a human being." It left out "or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." That was so the robots weren't compelled to rush into the radiation chamber ina futile attempt to save the human in it. The other 2 laws were left intact.

  20. Re:They've killed Asimov by maswan · · Score: 2, Informative

    Thank you!

    Yes, I got that detail on removal/modification wrong. And the rest of the info fits with my memory. Now I know what to look for when I try to find it for reading it again. :)

  21. Re:Wil Weaton by Zak3056 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Anyone know if Wil Weaton got the part?

    Judging by his page on imdb I'd say no...

    --
    What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
  22. Re:I did think it was gonna be good.. by jfengel · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually he was very good in Six Degrees of Separation.

    There's a lot of talent there, but he's mostly using it to make cheap^H^H^H^H^Hexpensive action movies and some not-very-good dramas (Ali, Bagger Vance).

    He's got a lot of on-screen charisma, which is actually one of the most important skills an actor can have. People respond well to him, and that's a hard thing to teach. (I'm a director, and I've tried.) He's got some range, though he's at his best when it's light-hearted (his rap career, his sitcom, Men in Black).

    But I keep looking for him to follow up his very good (not brilliant, but very very good) performance in Six Degrees. I haven't seen that yet.

    Keanu... well, Keanu tries. I was actually the only one on the world who liked him in Much Ado About Nothing. He was interesting in My Own Private Idaho. He was actually rather good in that awful Something's Gotta Give. He really, really wants to be a Good Actor, but he'll have to settle for being charismatic.

  23. Re:No mention of Isaac Asimov by Watts+Martin · · Score: 4, Informative

    The movie really doesn't have anything to do with "I, Robot," as far as I know -- the original script for it was called, IIRC, "Hardwired." To be fair, it was supposed to be a pretty damn good script, but when it was bought by the studio that also had done some development work with "I, Robot" and owned the film rights to the name, they decided to merge the two concepts, because to someone with a Hollywood marketing executive's deep insight they're close enough (detective trying to solve murders committed by a robot). Really, though, it's still "Hardwired," with some of the names from the Asimov stories.

    I'll be curious to see if it's still a good movie, but I don't expect it to be a good adaptation of anything related to Asimov's works. The fact that it's pretending to be is unfortunate marketing spin.

  24. Re:They've killed Asimov by v13inc · · Score: 2, Informative

    when i saw this trailer it reminded me of that story, and i was was excited. but near the end of the trailer, things go wrong... i dont seem to remember hordes of NS-2s rampaging through the building, attacking humans, and getting blown away with shotguns.

  25. Dr. Calvin is in it by autopr0n · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wasn't that the name of the the female engineer who developed robotics in Asmov's stories?

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
  26. Re:They've killed Asimov by pentalive · · Score: 3, Informative

    This movie does not deal with true asmovian robots.

    The three laws were to be so deeply ingrained in the positronic brain of the robot that to disobey any of them would cause "roblock", the robot would freeze up.

    As mentioned above, there were a group of robots working in a radiation laboratory. The robots would rush in to save
    the humans, only to destroy themselves (the radiation frys positronic brains and is relatively harmless to humans)
    so a new batch of robots was purchased with part of the first law "or through inaction..." removed.

    The Robots themselves came up with a zeroeth law:

    A robot may not allow humanity to come to harm, even at the expense of the other laws.

    These robots could kill to safeguard humanity.

  27. Re:No mention of Isaac Asimov by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Before trying to be clever you might want to know of what you speak.

    The real-life company US Robotics is named after the fictional company US Robotics and Mechanical Men in Asimov's books.

    After viewing the trailer, it looks like typical hollywood fare and somewhere far away, Asimov is slowly spinning in his grave.

    This movie bears no resemblance to any of the stories in the book, "I, Robot" and only a passing resemblance to any of the four books in the Robot Series.