USA: AMERICAN FILM PREMIERE OF STEVEN SPIELBERG'S LATEST MOVIE "A.I" ABOUT ROBOTS AND ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE

Record ID: 391442

  • Title: USA: AMERICAN FILM PREMIERE OF STEVEN SPIELBERG'S LATEST MOVIE "A.I" ABOUT ROBOTS AND ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE
  • Date: 16th June 2001
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JUNE 16) (REUTERS) SMV (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) JAN HARLAN SAYING " It's a true amalgamation between two great talents. Everything that Stanley had in the story, basically, is still there. It's the ending, it's the beginning, it's the whole thread. The storyline was there and still over every scene or every frame, you have Steve Spielb
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACN59O7CE2JQLFKEL74ASX622S
  • Story Text: After much anticipation, Steven Spielberg finally unveiled his version of a Stanley Kubrick vision called "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" at the film's American Premiere on Tuesday, (June 26) in New York City.
    Although Steven Spielberg has only been writing and directing "A.I." for the past few years, in many ways, the project is 18 years old. It was way back in 1983 that the late filmmaking legend Stanley Kubrick first optioned the film rights for a short story called "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long." It was about a robot child in the distant future who struggles to make a connection with his human mother.
    In 1995, Kubrick and his producing partner Jan Harlan went into active production on a film version of the story, but quickly shelved the idea when it became apparent that filmmaking technology wasn't advanced enough yet to be able to tell the story as they envisioned it.
    It was also during this time that Kubrick and Steven Spielberg struck up a trans-Atlantic friendship, conducted mostly via phone and fax. Kubrick asked Spielberg to direct "A.I." at that time.
    After Kubrick's death in 1999, Spielberg picked up the project and ran with it, completing the screenplay himself, the first time he's done so since "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and casting Haley Joel Osment in the lead role of David, the first robot boy who's programmed to love.
    Although Osment has had hefty leading roles before in films such as "The Sixth Sense" and "Pay It Forward," this is by far his most strenuous film, as the entire story rests on his shoulders and he appears in virtually every scene.
    Also in the cast is recent Oscar nominee Jude Law, who plays Gigolo Joe, a robot who's programmed to seduce and give pleasure to women. In preparation for his role, Law underwent weeks of dance training and learned to move seductively like Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Elvis Presley. He also underwent three hours of makeup each day to make his face look more artificial and synthetic.
    Actor Sam Robards and Australian actress Frances O'Connor plays David's adoptive parents, who bring him into their home when their biological son falls into a coma. But when he emerges from the coma and returns home, complications between the two boys force them to abandon David in the real world, where animosity against robots threatens him at every turn.
    Rounding out the cast are William Hurt as the scientist who builds David, Brendan Gleeson as a mercenary robot-hunter, and Ben Kingsley, who provides the voice of the film's narrator.
    Complete with fantastic futuristic sets and state-of-the-art special effects, "A.I." opens in theaters throughout the United States on Friday, June 29.
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