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A report from the BICENTENNIAL MAN auditions in New York
Here's a tidbit from BICENTENNIAL MAN tryouts in the big apple...
Some Dsiney auditions up in NYC produced a few pages of the Nicholas Kazan
script, from the story by Issac Asimov for us to read. Chris Columbus directs. Characters
named Sir, Maam, Miss and Little Miss (the daughters)....sounds kinda
Doctorow/Ragtime-ish....Robin Williams is the android who appears ala
Richard
Pryor in "The Toy"...taken out of a box...greeted by a bratty older daughter
(Miss)...the youngest daughter mistakes the word "android" for "Andrew"
which
becomes the android's name....Miss, soon after his arrival, orders him to
jump
out the second story window....From what I read on the audition script, the character sounds
extremely "Data-like", with the android becoming human plotline...No actors
names attached to the parental roles, some unknowns were reading those parts....apparently special effects would
produce MANY androids that look like Robin Willaims....every household
apparently has one in the film.
ciao 4 now!
call me Slappy....
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+ Expand All
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Williams is wrong for the role, I've read the story several times since I was kid, and Andrew is a very reserved character. I see someone more Roddy McDowell-ish in the role. (If you've never read the story, you should. It can be found in almost any of Asimov's collections, and it's a very quick read, considering it takes place over a 200-year period.)
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Anyone want to bet that the Spoiled Rich Kids end up learning Important Lessons from Robin's Heartwarming Antics? Just kill me now, okay?
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Roddy McDowell's dead int he??
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I read this story a while ago, and while Robin Williams may or may not be a good choice (not too bad in my oppinion, but we can find someone better) the truth is that a human shouldn't play Andrew until almost the end of the movie. Up until that point, he's a standard metal Asimovian robot.
**spoiler**
The cloned skin (and eventually cloned organs) are given to him much later in life, leading to questions concerning what is and isn't life.
Also, I really hope that the 3 Laws of Robotics are stressed in this movie as well, it just wouldn't be Asimov without them. -
robin Williams in a heartwarming tale about life..is anyone else having JACK flashbacks...ahhhhhh save us..
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I had read this project had
been shelved because of the expense. Maybe Patch Adams revived it.
But I wish Williams had pushed
to get Harlan Ellison's script
of I, Robot (which is available
as a book) instead.
Ellison explains what happened
to the project in the intro (at one point it was almost made
with Irvin Kershner as director).
There used to be excerpts on pathfinder, but they have vanished. -
I stand by my former prediction -- I foresee that, especially with Chris Columbus directing, this project will have approximately 0% to do with Isaac Asimov's vision and 100% to do with "Patch Adams." You know, I really used to enjoy Robin Williams, before he became Mr. "LOVE ME! LOVE ME! SEE HOW HEARTWARMING AND PUPPY-LIKE AND CUTE AND DEEP I AM!" The single most offensive thing about those nauseating "Patch Adams" TV spots was the succession of reaction shots as cancer patients, young and old alike, roll helplessly in their beds as RW gives them the gift of laughter. Apparently this is necessary to signify that Patch/RW is a comic genius and truly is bringing magic to their lives, rather than just annoying or frightening people who are already in pain and dying. If the material were actually funny instead of incredibly annoying and abrasive, would we need to have it rubbed in our faces like this? Robin, if you're reading this, just know that I like you a WHOLE lot better when you're just funny and don't try to be so damn earnest. Or, contrariwise, when you just play it straight as in "Good Will Hunting." But when you get into that Jerry-Lewis-in-Hour-36 self-aggrandizing "heartwarming" touching-your-heart tickling-your-funny-bone love-me-before-I-KILL-you shtick, it just gets ridiculous.
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Frank Audet from Movie Venture has recently reported that (extremely underrated) Embeth Davidtz has been cast as the 'good' daughter in the story. As far as Robin Williams goes, relax everybody. He's proven to be a fine actor in many different genres and will be very capable of an Asimov story. I too have some concerns of Columbus directing this picture, feeling it would be better served in the hands of a more off-beat filmmaker, but I'll give everyone involved with the project the benefit of the doubt.
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Everyone seems to be worked up about RW antics. Andrew had zero antics, other than getting mugged and generally abused. And the spoiled kids weren't abusive, actually little miss, if I remember correctly,she was his favorite. She later (mild Spoiler, I guess) becomes the staunchest supporter of his "cause". So if RW gets this part he better play it straight. It ain't no comedy.
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Is she the older daughter ALL-GROWN UP? Or is she the mother? All I read was that she was cast as the "female lead" in the Post.
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Personally, I think anyone who directed Home Alone 1 & 2, Mrs. Doubtfire, Nine Months, and the insipid Stepmom, should be kept as far away from science fiction as possible. Chris Columbus' insufferable flicks are all about woe-is-me rich people learning to feel and feeling to learn. The presence of Robin "Marshmallow-Boy" Williams will make this one pink, fuzzy, pepto-bismal experience indeed. God, Williams' schtick is getting old - and here I'd thought his stock was plummeting after the Dyanetics-meets-the-vomiting-Easter-bunny torture of What Dreams May Come, but nooooooo, along comes "Good Mornin' Leukemia Patients!" and we're off on another rollicking, cancer-afflicted tear-and-a-chuckle melodrama for the spoon-fed masses.
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As reported elsewhere, the screenplay is based on an expanded version of the original short story that Asimov published in the mid-late '80's. Also as reported here and elsewhere, Embeth will play Little Miss as an adult, AND her grandchild as an adult (the story DOES cover 200 years).
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Anyone who wasn't moved by Stepmom, didn't laugh and enjoy the Home Alone Pictures does not have the human emotions to enjoy a movie like Bicentennial Man and shouldn't then have any worries about who is directing it.
Also, please remember, that Home Alone was a revolutionary picture in its charged visual humor which almost every physical comedy that comes out these days tries to emulate.
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