Of course something like this comes in right after I post about how I’m planning on going to see the film. Now, this is rumor of the ‘friend of a friend’ variety but it’s credible and more than a little discouraging. Here’s an email I got this morning reporting that Alex Proyas has had creative control over I, Robot taken from him by the studio and how he’s less than pleased with the results:
Hey Bubba, rather than posting this in some long forgotten thread about the movie i thought i’d send this straight to you. I have a friend who is working with Fox this summer doing some sound mixing and he just finished working on I Robot. During the time he spent on that film he got to hang out with Alex Proyas a bit and he told me something that has discouraged me immensely. Proyas isn’t happy with the film, apparently Fox wanted to see some changes, so they made them happen and, as i said, Proyas is dissapointed with his film. Generally not a good sign when a director doesn’t like his own movie.
Twitch
I wish I could say I didn’t believe this but the sad fact is that I do. Proyas has already been openly and vocally upset about the marketing for the film, disliking the studio’s trailer for the film so much that he cut his own version and made it available off of his own MysteryClock.com website so it’s certainly no stretch to say that his vision for the film and the studio’s vision are considerably different things. This makes me sad.
A few years back Day-vuhl and I ran a stupid little website called Things I Can Give the Finger in which we posted pictures of ourselves giving things the finger. Alex Proyas was our first celebrity participant and between that experience and lurking about on the MysteryClock forums, in which Proyas is constantly answering questions and just generally shooting the breeze with fans and wannabe film makers, I’ve become convinced that as well as being an enormously talented film maker Proyas is one of the genuinely good people in the film world. I’m convinced that if not for the Brandon Lee tragedy The Crow would have made Proyas a hugely sought after talent and there’s nothing I’d like more than to see this film make buckets of money so the man will be free to do his own projects his own way for a good long time but if there’s a behind-the-scenes power struggle going on here the chances of seeing the real Proyas on screen become remarkably smaller. Here’s hoping Fox didn’t mess with it too much.
I don’t think it’s so much that people are anti-Will as it is that they are anti-Will-in-this-film. The guy’s good at what he does but the typical Will Smith thing is tonally very, very wrong for I, Robot. It may still turn out to be a decently good film but it’s definitely a very bad adaptation of a classic novel and right or wrong Will is going to bear the brunt of the sci-fi fans’ anger over that.
Why is everyone ‘Will-Bashing’this film? Everyone I know is really excited about it!
Garage Days is out on DVD in August …
Just saw a short clip on Jay Leno last night.
It was pretty bad and cliched.
Had Will Smith jumping off his mortorcycle in mid-air with the Matrix style gun shooting at a robot to save the very annoying Shia LaBeouf . Than he does the tuck and roll on top of a car for a safe landing….
Alex deserves better than this. The Crow is a bonified cult classic. Dark City rules like lords. And Garage Days was sweet. As the day drew closer I was actually kind of looking forward to I Robot. I think Alex deserves our money, don’t you?
Twitch: Your source? Is this who I think it is? You know. That guy. That Oscar Winner/Nominee guy?
Other than the three laws of robotics the movie looks to have next to nothing to do with the book. Go read it. It’s good.
The worst part is I can’t read the book or movie because someone ruined it for me. Not by giving away the ending but he tore apart the whole story when he said,”Just turn it off.” Which makes so sense, don’t even put the robot on trial just turn it off! GRAAAHHHRG!!!!
Ha! That’s great, except you forgot the annoying Will Smith musical tie-in to help jumpstart his recording career… “Big Willy Style”!
Look, this is what the movie’s going to be like, once the studio has had its way with it:
—
WILL SMITH: “That robot’s gonna blow!!!”
Close-up of glowing red LED bomb-timer on robot’s chest.
EVIL ROBOT: “I cannot be stopped! Ha Ha! Robots shall rule the Earth!”
WILL SMITH: “I’ve got your First Law right here, sucka!!!”
(Will shoots Evil Robot, who explodes in a cloud of kerosene, while Will Smith outruns the explosion in slow-motion, screaming “Yaaaahhh!”)
Oh, and the movie ends with Will Smith going to bed with Susan Calvin.
-A.R.Yngve
http://yngve.bravehost.com
When is hollywood going to realize that I would liek to see a good movie with a plot….not the typical Will Smith smirk and punch line….which is what I thought this movie was based on the 1st trailer(umm…the executive trailer)….but the next trailer actually made me want to see the movie…..guess that it’s a 50-50 shot.
When is hollywood going to realize that I would liek to see a good movie with a plot….not the typical Will Smith smirk and punch line….which is what I thought this movie was based on the 1st trailer(umm…the executive trailer)….but the next trailer actually made me want to see the movie…..guess that it’s a 50-50 shot.