Will Smith to star in I, Robot?!

Posted 6 Dec 2002 at 21:22 UTC by steve

Every Robot builder is familiar with Asimov's laws of robotics and with I, Robot, his best-known collection of robot short stories. The stories deal with Susan Calvin, a Robot Psychologist, who uses Holmesian deductive logic to solve various mysteries involving robots that appear to have violated one or more of the laws. Many a female geek has pointed to Susan Calvin as her role model. Now, 20th Century Fox has licensed the use of the book title to hype a new Will Smith movie in which he plays "a technophobic police officer who is called in to investigate a murder that he believes was committed by a robot and uncovers a giant conspiracy." From the description it appears that, much like Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, the movie will have nothing to do with the book beyond the use of the title.

Men in Black Robot Suit, posted 6 Dec 2002 at 23:03 UTC by The Swirling Brain » (Master)

Uh, I can't wait for the MTV video... Nod Ya Robotic appendage. Why does this strike me as a bad idea? He'll probably sell a lot of movie tickets, though.

MIBRS2, posted 7 Dec 2002 at 20:37 UTC by ROB.T. » (Master)

Lol! Place your bets - by the end of the movie Will Smith discovers he's a robot. (Any takers?)

Like another Asimov robot book?, posted 9 Dec 2002 at 17:21 UTC by robodave » (Journeyer)

Doesn't the story line actually sound more like "Caves of Steel", by Asimov?

Remake Flops, posted 9 Dec 2002 at 23:33 UTC by nprobert » (Apprentice)

Leave it to Hollywood to screw up a really good SF story, especially ones about robots or artificial intelligence. Most SF movie adaptations don't hold true to the books and most screen writers don't have the natural intelligence to match that of major science fiction writers.

Since 2001, can anybody name a good SF movie about robots or artificial intelligence (StarWars not withstanding)? I thought A.I. was pretty good in recent memory.

The remake of "The Wild Wild West" with Will Smith was a big flop. Better do a sequel to ID 4 instead.