Smith: 'I, Robot Is Darker And Amazing'
Exclusive: The Fresh Prince gets serious
17 June 2004
If you've been studying I, Robot's promotional campaign with any interest – and to our eternal shame, it's been keeping us up at nights – you might have noticed a gradual change in tone.
The first trailers for the Alex Proyas movie, in which technophobe cop Will Smith stumbles upon an apparent conspiracy by robots to take over the world, despite inbuilt laws preventing them from harming humans, were mostly light-hearted, showcasing Smith's usual wisecracking schtick. They didn't go down particularly well, especially with fans of Isaac Asimov's original stories on which the movie is very loosely based.
Since then, though, the trailers and posters have gradually become much darker, more serious, less campy - very much in keeping with the work of Dark City director Proyas. Is this, then, a new breed of Will Smith movie?
“People will be very surprised," says the former Fresh Prince, speaking exclusively to Empire. "It's darker, it’s really well done, it’s amazing. It is essentially an art house movie masquerading as a big summer sized action film.”
Hmm… not sure how that will go down with the great unwashed in Buttplug, Idaho (or indeed, Milton Keynes), but it's an admirable declaration of intent. “I think it’s what the future of action movies are going to have to be like," insists Smith. "You have to think a bit, you gotta pay attention and in the film there are intellectual concepts that need to be debated and discussed and argued about."
That's fighting talk, Will. But then, with an intriguing story, seemingly impressive special effects from Digital Domain, and the stunning Bridget Moynahan as Dr Susan Calvin, a robot psychologist who assist's Smith's Del Spooner in his battle to uncover the conspiracy, I, Robot has emerged from the shadows to become, potentially, one of the summer's most intriguing movies. Watch this space…