Will Wises Up

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WILL SMITH WISES UP: Star of 'Men in Black' and 'Independence Day' turned to Isaac Asimov in his quest to make a 'smarter summer movie'

July 13, 2004

BY TERRY LAWSON
FREE PRESS MOVIE WRITER


Will Smith says he knew only one thing for certain when he committed to "I, Robot," the science-fiction thriller inspired by a prescient, half-century-old collection of Isaac Asimov stories.

THE SMITH FILE
Name: Will Smith
Age: 35

Birthplace: Philadelphia

Notable films: "Ali," "Men in Black," "Independence Day," "Six Degrees of Separation"


"I knew this couldn't be just another summer movie with explosions and chases and special effects," says Smith. "Because audiences have said good-bye to all that. It's been done to death; it's over."

So that means no "Bad Boys III?"

"Oh, man, I ran right into that, didn't I?" says Smith, laughing. "OK, fair enough. If I was to do another 'Bad Boys,' it wouldn't be anything like the first two. It would have to be story-driven and character-driven. OK, maybe with one really big explosion, but that's all."

It could be that Will Smith's greatest talent, according to Michael Mann, who directed him to an Oscar nomination in "Ali," is that he takes everything he does seriously "without ever seeming to take himself seriously." Or it could be that no movie star since Arnold Schwarzenegger has exuded as much self-confidence. Ask him how he's doing, and he'll always tell you life's never been better.

This day, it's "all gravy," he says. Make an offhand remark about his status as one the world's top five movie stars, and he interrupts, pretending to take umbrage: "Five? That means four are ahead of me? And would two of them happen to be named Tom?'

One of those Toms -- last name of Cruise -- had surprised Smith the night before, turning up unexpectedly at the Los Angeles premiere of "I, Robot."

"And all of a sudden, it was like I wasn't even there anymore," says Smith. "They could have rolled up the red carpet. I was like: 'Wait a minute. Don't you have your own movie to push?' Seriously, that was very cool of him. We've known each other a while, but we've just gotten closer over the last year."

Spend a few minutes with Smith, and you envy Cruise the privilege. Barry Sonnenfeld, who directed Smith in both "Men in Black" films and the bomb "Wild Wild West," says Smith's positive outlook and natural charm can be disarming and that no one will ever accuse him of being insincere or sneaky.

"He lays it all out there for you to see," says Sonnenfeld.

Robot building
Smith's honesty-is-best policy was on the table when he signed on to produce "I, Robot," a project that had been in development for years with various directors and actors attached to it.

He had been looking for what he calls "smarter summer movie concepts" when he read Asimov's collection of robot stories, which the writer started publishing in fantasy magazines in the late 1940s. Envisioning a future in which robots made to serve man begin to evolve into something their creators never envisioned, Asimov, says Smith, "basically laid down the formula for just about every sci-fi movie that robots figured in."

"It all went back to him and these three laws of logic that he established for robot behavior in those stories. One, a robot may not harm a human being or let a human be harmed. Two, a robot must obey orders given to it by humans except when that would hurt a human. And three, a robot can protect himself unless that interferes with the first or second law.

"Each of the stories is basically about what happens when these rules, this human-imposed logic, appear to be challenged some way."

Smith then met Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman, who adapted "A Beautiful Mind" for the screen, at the Academy Awards ceremony in 2002. The actor believed Goldsman could be the person to turn the Asimov work into something more than just another collection of special effects, and 20th Century Fox agreed.

The new version has Smith playing a "robophobic" detective in 2035 Chicago, where the monopololistic U.S. Robotics is about to introduce a new product line that will make robots available to millions more people.

But when a test-model robot is implicated in a possible murder, the rollout is jeopardized. The cop has to turn to a less-than-cooperative robot psychologist (played by Bridget Moynahan) for help in ascertaining what's going on.

"Basically, what we were pitching was a $100-million art movie, about personal relationships and prejudice and technology," recalls Smith.

Smith acknowledges he couldn't completely shuck his summer movie mentality: Originally, he says, there were just a couple of robots in the story. "I said, 'No, no, this audience is going to want to see it all on-screen. . . . It has to be bigger than that for the point to be made.' "

Director Alex Proyas and a special effects team worked for months to design a robot that Smith says was both what people expect robots to look like yet still original. "We literally looked at a hundred different ideas. But the look (Proyas and his team) finally came up with was inspired by the iMac. You could see the insides of the thing, the inner workings. Very cool."

Human touch
Smith had plenty of experience working with "blue screen" -- the blank backgrounds that allow the computer-generated and mechanical special effects to be added to the film later -- but it was important to everyone involved that the robot murder suspect, nicknamed Sonny, be played by an actor, a la Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" films.

Proyas chose Alan Tudyk, currently on screen in "Dodgeball" and a member of the cast of the short-lived but much-acclaimed TV series "Firefly," to act the part, though he would ultimately be replaced by a computer effects creation. Smith says it made an enormous difference to have a fellow actor to work with, especially in the interrogation scene that's the dramatic centerpiece of the film.

"Alan's so great," says Smith. "He comes in wearing this suit" (which is an outfit that allows the filmmakers to duplicate his physical and emotional reactions with the computer-generated robot later) "and just gives this great performance. It's so much better than the old way, where you were talking to a tennis ball, you know.

"Except for the first couple of days, when you're trying to be serious and dramatic with this guy in a skin-tight green cat suit."

Proyas says he wanted the robots and other special effects to be as convincing as possible, but the extra effort led to "I, Robot" not being finished until 10 days before the movie was ready to open. That, in turn, meant the usual summer-movie press junkets and promotions could not be mounted.

Smith did a few last-minute interviews, but says the movie, in the end, will work or it won't. "It's not about the hype or the buildup. It's about what we got on-screen. And even if it isn't a blockbuster, we can live with that because we know we've made a good movie."

Smith will next be heard, along with Robert De Niro and Renee Zellweger, in "Shark Tale," which he describes as "an animated gangster comedy with fish." He's also filming "The Last First Kiss," a romantic comedy.

Despite the acclaim he received for "Ali" and the endless suggestions that it's past time for him to move in a more dramatic direction, Smith says his goal is to make "an everything movie."

"You know what I mean? A movie that does it all, like 'Jerry Maguire' or 'Tootsie.' One with heart and soul and drama and comedy and a great story. You know anybody with one of those? Send 'em to me."

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[Silver Tiger]

Thanks, good read.

God Blessa!