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Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
Starring Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, William Hurt, and Brendan Gleeson. Cinematography by Janusz Kaminski. Edited by Michael Kahn. Produced by Bonnie Curtis, Kathleen Kennedy, and Steven Spielberg. Written by Ian Watson and Steven Spielberg. Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Cybertronics Manufacturing has just created the very first android to be equipped with a full range of emotions. His name is David and he is designed to look like an eleven year old boy. David is adopted by Henry and Monica Swinton to replace their terminally ill child, Jake, who has been cryogenically frozen until a cure is found. After a brief awkward period, the Swinton’s embrace David as if he were their own. Out of the blue one day their real son miraculously recovers and is brought back home. It is very quickly apparent that the two boys will not be able to live together and David is discarded like so much garbage. So begins his journey into the unknown to find where he truly belongs.
In the twelve year hiatus between the releases of Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick would develop and complete three feature length screenplays. One was, of course, Eyes Wide Shut. The second was based on Louis Begley’s 1991 novel Wartime Lies. The third was an adaptation of Brian Aldiss’ 1969 short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long”. Kubrick would work on the film on and off for over twenty years with five different writers, including Aldiss himself. In those years a full treatment was completed, hundreds of storyboards had been drawn up, and dozens of pages of handwritten notes detailing Kubrick’s thoughts and ideas had been logged. But when it came down to choosing which picture to produce, Kubrick chose Eyes Wide Shut; a project that he had been mulling over for nearly four decades. Instead of shelving A.I., Kubrick decided to offer it to his long time friend Steven Spielberg. And while the story had his fingerprints all over it, ultimately Kubrick felt that it was much better suited to a director with Spielberg’s ideas and sensibilities. Spielberg accepted, but soon realized that Kubrick’s passion for the story was too great and that outside of his hands the film would never be produced to his liking. Spielberg gracefully bowed out and before Kubrick could pick his pet project back up, he died.
After Kubrick’s death, his widow, Christiane, contacted Spielberg and asked him to honor her late husband by finishing what was started with A.I. Without hesitation Spielberg agreed and was soon hard at work writing his draft of the screenplay (it would be his first screenwriting credit since Poltergeist in 1982). His script, now titled Artificial Intelligence: AI, was thumped out in two months and the sixty eight day production began shortly thereafter. The film’s amazing special effects were designed from the storyboard illustrations commissioned by Kubrick in the early nineties and brought to life by the same effects companies Spielberg used for Jurassic Park, namely George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic and Stan Winston Studio. Unfortunately, when all was said and done, Artificial Intelligence: AI had a difficult time finding its audience. Though it was appreciated by many critics, it ended up a disappointment at the box office.
Budget: $90,000,000
Total US Gross: $78,616,689
Genre: Science Fiction
Runtime: 146 Minutes
US Release Date: 6/29/01
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Awards: Academy Awards: Nominated for best original score and best visual effects. Golden Globes: Nominated for best original score, best supporting actor, and best director.
Tagline: David Is 11 Years Old. He Weighs 60 Pounds. He Is 4 Feet, 6 Inches Tall. He Has Brown Hair. His Love Is Real. But He Is Not.
Quote: “They made us too smart, too quick, and too many. We are suffering for the mistakes they made because when the end comes, all that will be left is us. That's why they hate us, and that is why you must stay here, with me.”
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