How I, Robot’s Original Screenplay Connected More to Isaac Asimov - CBR - Comic Book Resources
When I, Robot came out in 2004, it was met with mixed reactions from fans. Some had no issues with it, while others hated the movie with a passion. This is because I, Robot shares its title with the first of Isaac Asimov's Robot series and includes Asimov's three laws of robotics but doesn't have many similarities with the author's works beyond that. I, Robot has been accused of not staying true to Asimov's work, having a cookie-cutter plotline and clumsily combining Asimov's ideas.
What some fans may not know is that I, Robot originally started as a screenplay called Hardwired, written by Jeff Vintar. Hardwired was more of a murder mystery and was much more in line with Asimov's three laws than I, Robot. When Hardwired was acquired by Twentieth Century Fox, Vintar changed the screenplay so it would serve as a prequel to Asimov's work to explain why robots were outlawed. When Will Smith agreed to take part in the movie, the genre of Hardwired quickly switched from thriller to action movie.
Many Asimov fans were disappointed when they discovered that the movie adaptation of I, Robot was an action movie instead of a deeper discussion about the three laws of robotics. With so few similarities to the source material, viewers started to question why it needed to be tied to Asimov's work at all. After looking back to the origins of the I, Robot movie, it becomes obvious that the result was a diluted version of a much better concept. Vintar also revealed in a 2004 interview with Screenwriter's Utopia that Del Spooner was originally the only human character in Hardwired and that the connection between Hardwired and I, Robot wasn't made until Twentieth Century Fox bought the rights to Asimov's short story collection after the acquisition of Hardwired.
These revelations bring up the question of what I, Robot would have been like if it stayed true to Hardwired's original plot and played into Asimov's short stories. Asimov's work focuses more on the moral implications of technology and shows robots being programmed with ethics. While this is shown in the I, Robot movie, the short stories go into more detail without showcasing action or violence in their plotlines. One story even discusses the implication of potentially having a robot politician and how robots could control economic systems, which is a much deeper plotline than the one shown in the I, Robot movie.
The three laws of robotics are explored more in the I, Robot stories as well. The first law -- that a robot shall not harm a human or allow a human to come to harm -- conflicts with the second law -- that a robot shall obey any instruction given to it by a human -- in Liar! when a telepathic robot ends up shutting down because it was telling flattering lies to protect humans' feelings instead of the truth and disobeying orders by doing so. There are multiple other I, Robot stories that feature the three laws conflicting with each other, as well as the robots' interactions with human beings. While the movie does explore these three laws, it doesn't stay true to the spirit of the original stories.
Despite its flaws, some fans still enjoy I, Robot as a summer blockbuster movie. However, a lot was undeniably changed from Hardwired's original concept, and plot switches made by Twentieth Century Fox and director Alex Proyas took the film further away from the source material. I, Robot may be a fun action movie, but it definitely isn't a faithful adaptation of Isaac Asimov's work.
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