RyoHazuki

The official site for Alex Proyas (Crow, Dark City) is up.

www.irobotnow.com


Pretty cool site. I saw the teaser before ROTK and didnt know what it was. Now i know and Im excited.

Darren Garrison

I fail to see how Hollywood will be able to do anything other than utterly screw any decent SF book.

Besides, shouldn't that name go to a future Apple product? the iRobot?

necros

Cool site. I like the approach, how it's like an ad for the robots and not for the movie.

I'm anxious to see this movie though, my cousin is doing some CGI work for it

Mountain Biker

Premise sounds great + Alex Proyas is directing. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Jepthah

I only have one fear: that Proyas has given up his intelligent and distinct directorial voice for a large payday. If he has treated Asimov's story with respect and not dumbed down the script, this could be a wonderful film. Will Smith can act seriously (if you don't believe me, watch Six Degrees Of Separation for an example) and this could be good, but I will suspend my judgment until I see it.

QuiGonJosh

I saw the preview...and I was like..."ok...." but now that I know Alex Proyas is making it...the man who made two of the best movies of the past 10 years...The Crow and Dark City...Im all over this!

Supermallet

My friend who worked at Fox saw a copy of the script and said it was terrible, but, it's Alex Proyas, so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. But my hopes are lowered just a little...

Also, anyone who likes Proyas should check out his most recent film, Garage Days, which was out for what must have been literally a week in Los Angeles. Very fun movie.

Michael Corvin

Oh yeah. Forgot about Garage Days. Looked good enough. Shouldn't that be on video soon? ... or already?

Supermallet

Probably already is in Australia, I should check that out, I'd love to see it again.

tonyc3742

Granted, it was a different time and a different style, but I still have nightmares about Nightfall

I recall reading somewhere that there was a partially completed script for I, Robot, complete with scene layouts and some conceptual art--Harlan Ellison comes to mind? that never went anywhere either because of contract disagreements or artistic differences. I'm assuming that this isn't the result of that.

The website does look pretty neat, although I'm somewhat wary of Will Smith. And of course hope it stays closer to the source material than Bicentennial Man....

'Three Laws Compliant.....' heh. Although realistically that shouldn't even be an option....

Geofferson

wow - cool site!

Deftones

If the movie is even 1/2 as good as Dark City was, it will be worth seeing.

Matthew Chmiel

The person who is writing the screenplay for it is the one of the worst screenwriters of all time. Avika Goldsman can burn in hell for all I care. I blame him for ruining the Batman franchise (Joel Scumacher is a good filmmaker when given a good script) along with many other things (Lost In Space anyone?), and how he won an Oscar is beyond me. Anything he touches is a piece of crap in my book.

Also, the people supposedly doing rewrites and touches on the script aren't the best screenwriters in the world one could say (cause we all know how Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, the Planet of the Apes remake, Mona Lisa Smile, the remake of Insomnia, and Final Fantasy are some of the greatest films of all time).

I hope to God that Alex Proyas has final cut and has made changes to the script. He hasn't failed me yet, but I fear this could be a film going against him. I hope it's good and we can see him get to make more films.

DonnachaOne

It has a very nice teaser poster (just the robot).

However, I wonder is it an effective teaser poster. Does it generate interest in the upcoming film without giving anything away, or maintain a sly sense of "this is an ad, really it is" (a la Gattaca's "improve your children" ads)? I don't think it's particularly effective in either of those ways.

Nice to look at, though.

Derrich

Goldsman is the wors Screenwriter this side of porn. But somehow he not only continues to get work, but he does big budget movies. He has Deal with the Devil written all over him.

The site looks good, and hopefully the movie doesn't get to close to Millineum Man.

D

Groucho

Goldsman has written some shitty scripts, but then again his last script was A Beautiful Mind (which he won the Oscar for), so I wouldn't discount him completely.

DonnachaOne

Perhaps Goldsman is simply massacred in the hands of rewriters? When you think about it, the plot for Batman Forever wasn't bad (psychological issues, the idea of a good side/bad side to everyone, which is good, etc.).

Could be that he's been writing excellent scripts that the directors love, but then the script is rewritten under studio pressure, who want the film to "be funnier", "get to the action quicker", "sell more toys" or worse, "have it be cheaper, especially the ending".

Is Dave Hayter responsible for some of the silliness in the quite good X-Men? Maybe, but when rewriters like Joss Whedon admit they wrote in lines such as "Do you now what happens to a toad...*"

Not saying all rewrites are bad. Dirty Harry, for example. Thanks to John Milius, we have the whole fellin' lucky monologue.

*Whedon has since blamed Halle Berry for delivering the line wrong ("like she was Desdemona!") and that it was supposed to be silly, but if that's the best joke he can come up with... maybe it's funnier as is!

Pants

robot concept appears to be stollen from Cunningham's All Is Full of Love video for Bjork.

Supermallet

Which isn't actually a bad thing. All Is Full Of Love is one of the all time great videos. Any more exposure those robot designs can have is a plus on my list.

Corvin

I have profound respect for Proyas, so I'll keep faith in this movie. He's a pretty well-to-do director who is obviously choosing his projects after some consideration. With that in mind, I'm eager to see the film--despite bad screenwriters, etc..

Playitagainsam

I just hope that this movie won't be as stupid and terrible as "Bicentennial Man", which was an excellent Asimov short story and a decent Asimov/Silverberg novel..... man, that movies sucked!

fumanstan

I absolutely loved Crow and Dark City, so i have faith in Proyas. Never read the book though...

DonnachaOne

That's the FIRST thing I thought of when I saw the poster. Of course, no-one else I knew had seen the video. But it turns out an aloof hottie coworker listens to Bjork and was intrigued by the video concept. I lent her my Chris Cunningham DVD, and now we're talking a whole lot more.

So yeah, I'm lovin' the film already!

Could just be the same production design team as Cunningham uses. After all, he and Dave Fincher have made stuff with Darius Kondhji (sp), which would explain the similar look and feel of their respective works. Why not the same for the production designers and concept artists?

Dr. Mantle

That (finished) screenplay was actually published.

It's out of print, but used copies aren't too hard to find. Considering the length of the script(about 260 pages I think), the finished film would have been about four and a half hours. Ellison writes of the whole studio debacle in his introduction. And having read the script, I can say that, if I, Robot had been made, it would have been the most intelligent, adult SF film ever. (And no, I haven't forgotten 2001.) This film has nothing to do with Ellison's screenplay.

Alex Proyas is clearly a someone with enormous talent, and I'm willing to give the film the benefit of the doubt just because of him.

BUUUUUT. . .
It's very hard to ignore the fact that the film has nine producers and five screenwriters. Plus there have been reports which state:We'll see. . .

jough

As much respect as I have for Proyas, putting Will Smith in the lead just seems like a "Wild Wild West" kind of mistake to me.

I've read the novel but not the Ellison screenplay. I'll have to look it up - possibly to read it rather than see this film.

And Goldsmith is the current Joe Eszterhas.

Just horrible.