“I,
Robot” Press Conference and Set Visit
On a
muggy day in June, I traveled to MJA Studios in Burnaby, British
Columbia, Canada to check out how “I, Robot”, the
2004 summer blockbuster-to-be, was coming along. Based on the
extremely popular nine-part series of novels by famed author Isaac
Asimov, the premise is as follows: It’s Chicago circa 2035,
where robots are completely integrated in society. They live amongst
humans in a peaceful and hard-working manner. But a terrible crime
has been committed, and the world now ponders the question, “Can
a robot commit murder?”
The film is being directed by
Alex Proyas, a man highly-admired for his work on such dark masterpieces
as “The Crow” and “Dark City”. The cast
is very high profile as well. Will Smith stars as detective Del
Spooner, a man who investigates a crime that may have been perpetrated
by a robot – leading him to discover a far more frightening
threat to the human race. Bridget Moynahan plays robot psychologist
Susan Calvin. James Cromwell plays Dr. Lanning, a reclusive scientist
who was the creator of much of the world’s robots. Bruce
Greenwood and Chi McBride provide support as Lance Robertson,
the head of U.S. Robotics and Lt. John Bergin, Smith’s superior,
respectively. And much in the same way Andy Serkis performed as
‘Gollum’ in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy,
Alan Tudyk will be playing the character of “Sonny”,
the robot accused of murder. Using groundbreaking CGI effects,
animators will be bringing “Sonny” to life utilizing
Tudyk’s human nuances and movements and mixing them in with
a computer-created robot.
My fellow press journalists and
I got an exclusive tour of the set known as the “Lanning
Lab”, where Dr. Lanning creates many of his robots and mechanical
figures. The tour was personally conducted by production designer
Patrick Tatopoulos, a man acclaimed for his extravagant and innovative
creations on such films as “Independence Day” and
on Proyas’ own “Dark City”. We walk into a huge,
metallic laboratory, covered with all kinds of strange debris.
Decapitated robots, broken windows, unfinished designs and all
sorts of mechanical parts hanging from the ceiling. “The
concept of [Lanning’s] work is very messy,” Tatopoulos
tells us “it’s like Spooner’s, there’s
not much of a guideline here.” We see an old, messed-up
bed and we find out that the reclusive Dr. Lanning actually lives
in this disorganized mess of a lab. “He doesn’t leave
this room anymore,” we find out, “he’s been
living here for the last few years.” We walk into a long
corridor, with a large flight of stairs on the left. An enormous
green screen sits behind it. This is just one part of a bunch
of immense sets being built for this movie. “Basically,
the type of the thing we’re doing now, because the scale
is very important for the director, is we have a lot of sections
of sets, pieces of sets rather than big full sets in one piece.”
Tatopoulos says with his thick European accent. “For example,
we’re building the Atrium Lobby and the Atrium Lobby is
gigantic, there’s walls everywhere, there’s like tons
of stuff and we’re building just sections of that. A lot
of green screen, very much like ‘Lord of the Rings’
in a sense, you know, it’s actually quite a challenge because
you design and then you have to create the set in 3-D again…so
there’s a lot of pre-production work. Plus, once the set
is built, we take those images back and make sure we double it
up one more time for CGI so they have a completed image of what
the final look will be.” There will be different looks for
the movie, vast contrasts of each other. “There is two moods
in the movie, there is a suburb, which is grungy, very Alex Proyas
in some ways, you know we worked together on ‘Dark City’
with that kind of grunge look and when you go into the U.S.R.
[U.S. Robotics building] the plazas are beautiful, they’re
white, pristine, gorgeous…the lab levels are kind of an
in between mix.” The suburbs of the city are where Detective
Spooner and his family lives, which is called the older, poorer
part of the city. Then there’s the other side of town, filled
with beautiful metropolitan landscapes and shiny, glass buildings
where the wealthier people mostly preside. Clutching a copy of
Asimov’s “I, Robot” book in his arm, Tatopoulos
is asked whether the book had any influence on his design for
the sets of the movie. “We’ve gone beyond that…”
he says “there was two ways of attacking this thing, there
was either doing it as a period piece, which could have been really
cool as well, or going in the future, and we chose the future.”
Looking at the conceptual art
designs, I see what the look of the film is going to be. The city
is beautiful, a metropolitan wonderland, sort of like “Blade
Runner”, except cleaner and shinier. The Chicago subways
that we know now are transformed into sleek, roving speed machines
riding alongside enormously tall buildings of glass. There are
pictures of robots, rows upon rows of them, doing human work,
like drilling and digging, producing an idea that this future
world is a world where robots are basically slaves to humans and
that humans have much easier lives because of it.
After this, there was a press
conference. At this press conference were actors Will Smith, Bridget
Moynahan and Alan Tudyk and director Alex Proyas and production
designer Patrick Tatopoulos. Smith opened the conference with
hilarity right from the start as he tried to memorize every single
journalist’s name and recite it back, producing amusing
results. Making us feel welcome and comfortable, the questions
began:
Will
Smith |
Alex
Proyas |
Bridget
Moynahan |
Alan
Tudyk |
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What about “I,
Robot” got your attention, how did it all start? What grabbed
you about it?
Alex Proyas:
I read “I, Robot” when I was a kid. I read quite a
few science fiction novels and stories when I was quite young.
It was one of the things that I always wanted to make into a movie.
So I’ve been trying for quite some time and finally it’s
all come together.
Was there anything
specific in Asimov’s work that grabbed you, that really
caught your attention, something that you wanted to bring to the
screen?
AP: I think a
lot of things, but I think one of the things, really, is that
it’s become quite a timely piece. I think he predicted the
future back in the ‘40s and ‘50s when he wrote the
stories and it seems like we are getting closer and closer to
that world. It seemed like the time was right to tell those stories.
Will, had you read
the stories, were you familiar with them before you took the movie?
Will Smith: Yeah,
before I took the movie, the script was the first contact with
“I, Robot” that I had. I wasn’t familiar with
the short stories, then I read the short stories prior to meeting
with Alex. It’s just, I mean, it’s a really brilliant
concept it’s always interesting to me how someone projects
the future, you know. In reading those, and in my research, I
realized that there are people that do that as their job, you
know. IBM and Microsoft, they all hire people that sit around
and predict the future. I’m a special effects junkie so
this was perfect for me, right down my alley…I also think
that action movies and special effects films are changing in a
way that the audience is demanding a deeper, emotional and intellectual
base to the special effects and the whole show that gets put on.
The audience is demanding that the depth and the intellect is
there and this project seemed timely and perfect, actually.
Bridget, had you
read the stories beforehand?
Bridget Moynahan:
Yes, I read the book and … I actually read the script and
I went back after I saw Alex’s movie “Dark City”
because I realized he was going to add, just like, a whole new
incredibly…
WS: [Laughing]
Visual.
BM: [Laughing]
Visual! Visual aspect of it that was much more interesting than
what I was actually picturing reading the script so I signed on
once I saw that. I was excited.
Alex, could you talk
about taking the stuff from the short stories and in the various
drafts of the screenplay and combining the best of all those elements
together and what you’re going to shoot. Could you describe
what process was like?
AP: It was a
very involved process. If you know the stories, they’re
actually really difficult to distill down to one cinematic narrative,
and people have tried in the past to do that. So, in a way, we
took a bit of a sidestep in we’re really faithful to the
spirit of the Asimov stories, but we’ve, more or less, constructed
our own narrative using a lot of elements from a lot of different
stories, using a lot of sequences and scenes and ideas…I
think it’s really the only way to take those nine stories
and make a single, dramatic movie out of it. Obviously we hope
that the film will be successful and that we’ll be able
to make more in the cycle of Asimov’s stories.
Alan, have you ever
done anything like this before? You’re starring in the movie
but we’re not going to see you on screen. How does that
feel? What’s the challenge, what’s the frustration,
if any?
WS: As an actor,
not as your days as a dancer. [Everybody laughs.]
Alan Tudyk: It’s
not really a vanity project [everybody laughs] …It’s
great, I kind of think of it as, like, a really good makeup job.
I wouldn’t hesitate taking a job where I have, like, a hump
on my back and some large nose and something strange all over
my face; I’d love to be covered up like that, so this is
just a more efficient way of doing it and it’s really great.
It’s a lot of movement, a lot of considering movement…I
was in robot school as we honed a system for moving and how it
processes through my character and then applied to the other robots
and where they’re the same and where they’re different.
AP: Essentially
Alan is on set and he’s creating the character, in the way
that actors always create the characters. We work together and
he does pretty much what any actor does. But then, we basically
take that information and we have his performance drive a CGI
robot. Basically, we’re removing Alan from the scene and
replacing him with a creature that is fully CGI and has all the
nuances of what Alan has done…to look at it as makeup is
actually a really good parallel because its much like it’s
a technologically advanced version of what they did in the original
“Planet of the Apes”, but we’re using computers
to actually create that makeup effect. It’s amazing how
all the subtlety comes through though, that’s what I find
extraordinary, even more so than prosthetic makeup…the tiniest
thing that Alan does is all captured and reproduced through this
character.
Will, your character
plays somebody who hates technology to an extent, doesn’t
like robots. Is there any part of your real life like that? Any
technology you don’t like?
WS: Oh no, I’m
completely the opposite, a full-on tech junkie. Every new pager,
new cellphone that plays hip hop music I have to be right there,
at the forefront of new technology.
Will, What about
your role as executive producer in the movie?
WS: Yeah, that’s
kinda cool, you know, I told them I wouldn’t do the movie
if I wasn’t executive producer, so…[Everybody laughs].
It’s a very, very collaborative process…the movie
is very different from what the original script was, very different
from the short stories and there was a long collaborative process
that I I’m happy to had been a part of. It’s very
easy if you have really smart, intelligent people around, you
get to take credit for stuff you didn’t do [laughs].
Will, if you only
had one superpower what would it be?
WS: There’s
only an answer to get in trouble with…If I had a superpower,
‘cause you know women are the center of the universe, it
would have to be something sexual. [Everybody laughs.]
BM: My superpower
would be to block his superpower! [Everybody laughs.]
WS: No, but mine
would be superer…
How long did you
know about the project before you signed on, and what aspect of
the production interested you in doing “I, Robot”?
WS: Maybe about
six months prior to signing on, and for me, working on a film
is strictly about the team…I made “Independence Day”
at Fox, so that relationship has worked out in the past. I love
Alex’s work…Akiva [Goldsman]…I love it, I’m
excited, and I have everything I ever dreamed about to take a
shot at being successful with this one.
You’ve done
a lot of benchmark effects movies and it sounds like this one
is even more of an unusual experience than all the “Men
In Black”, “ID4”…am I correct in picking
this up?
WS: The process
is very different…Alex’s style, the way that he creates
the scene and the technical element is very different and this
character for me, in the special effects/science fiction genre…attributed
to Akiva, is the most developed, most layered character I’ve
played in the…genre. More care was taken to create a character
and a story that didn’t depend on the robots being sexy.
[Everybody laughs.]
Alan what do you draw
on in film history’s long legacy of robots, what inspiration
did you take?
AT: That Haley
Joel Osment kid. Boy, that kid didn’t blink once. [Everybody
laughs.]…I think of him as a human, my experience through
the character is much more of a human experience…He’s
like a baby man.
At what point, Alex,
did this project click from when you first got involved to now?
AP: We were working
on it for a very long time, doing a lot of designs back in Sydney
for about a year I think it was, and working stuff out and working
on the script, but really, seriously, this project wouldn’t
have happened without Will. It’s a very large scale film
and he’s really the guy that made it all come to fruition…the
other thing is, of course, is that, now, us being in the process
I don’t think anyone else would have actually gotten this
far. Because it’s an incredibly challenging film technically,
you know, we all make fun of it but it is very difficult and Will’s
good humor throughout the entire project has been fantastic.
Alex, obviously we
have Akiva standing in the back of the room here, can you talk
about, as a director, what it’s like to do rewrites, while
you’re shooting and the importance of having a writer with
you?
AP: …It’s
been great, honestly I think we’ve probably spent a lot
more time, as a team, working on this script, working out the
project and it’s been great. Akiva’s been unbelievably
involved, he’s made himself available, even when the studio
doesn’t want to pay him anymore, he keeps flying down here
and we’re continuing to finesse things as we go. It’s
wonderful. So far this process has been amazing on every level.
I just know that I’ll never be able to do the same thing
again.
Patrick, when you’re
creating this world, how much of your designs influence what the
special effects team will be creating?
Patrick Tatopoulos:
We’ve actually been working together since the beginning.
Bridget, your character
really is the main character in the Asimov book and a well-drawn
character at that, how similar or dissimilar is your “Susan
Calvin” to the Asimov “Susan Calvin”?
BM: Well, she
was 80. [Everybody laughs.] That’s a little different…In
the book, I saw her as more cold and removed and there is a lot
more layers to her in the script and what we’ve been working
together, so there is a bit more emotional life going on there
rather than what was in the book.
I, ROBOT OPENS
ON JULY 16, 2004
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