interesting post over at alex proyas site..
Alex, just really curious to hear your take on all the controversy surrounding the conflict you experienced with the studio (and rumored) Will Smith. Thanks.
There was no conflict with Will - that's just one of those web myths. I'm not really even certain how it started. Will and I had the best time working together and he was nothing but supportive of myself and the film.
The Studio is quite another matter. Not sure even where to begin, as they were responsible for inflicting the very worst studio/film-maker experience possible upon me during the making of the film. I am in fact working on a book right now about the making of I, ROBOT which focuses primarily on this experience. The working title might give you some idea of the extent of the conflict between myself and Twentieth Century Fox - it's to be called "Robot Wars".
Did the film turn out differently in any way because of studio interference?
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Like I've already said, I won most of the battles, though they were extremely heated and there are probably a handful of minor details insisted upon by the studio that I would have done differently. Having said that none of these details effect the outcome of the film, and none were serious enough for me to take my name off the credits - though I did think about it often and threatened to on more than one occasion. I am proud of the film - I've said it before and I mean it - but the cost to my emotions, my spirit, and my health was unacceptable.
Having decided to put my experience into book form I will not go into too great detail here, though I do hope to see if people are interested enough to read the book when it comes out.
Is anyone interested yet?
p.s. to answer Viper's question about this site - it has had and continues to have a great part to play in the "controversy".