Andrew Kantor's Place: Alex Proyas has some nerve

Alex Proyas has some nerve

Published 6/14/04

I’ve seen the previews for the upcoming film “I, Robot,” which director Alex Proyas has the nerve to say is based on the “Robot” books by Isaac Asimov.

“When I was a kid, ‘I, Robot’ was one of the select science-fiction books that I always thought would be really cool to make a movie of,” he says in the featurette. “It’s been a tough one to translate to the screen,” he admits.

Bullshit. It wasn’t tough to translate to the screen. Not when you dump the entire story line, change the characters, and make up a new plot. The only thing the movie apparently keeps is the title; even the main character’s name has changed.

Why not just say, “I liked the idea of a story about robots having three laws they had to obey, and what would happen if they didn’t obey them”? (That isn’t the plot of I, Robot the book, by the way.)

To even suggest that this movie has anything to do with Asimov’s classic means Proyas is either deluding himself … or just an idiot.

The Fray

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