What Are You Listening To?

I wanted to drop a quick note here to let you know what I'm listening to.

I've heard this movie did not do well/people didn't like it. I don't understand why; I have an idea, but still..."I, Robot" is a great movie. Okay, checked it out; I, Robot made only $52 mil on opening weekend. Not too shabby until you consider the budget of $120 mil. Latest earnings say $144 mil, so, technically you could say it did not do well "at the box office." I still love the movie!

Anyway, you can't watch I, Robot without also going back and watching "Independence Day" aka ID4. Which, in my opinion is another great sci-fi flic.

With that said, ID4's commentary by it's director(s) takes a backseat to I, Robot's writer and director commentary. However, it does gain points for also having a technical commentary track.

I won't go into great detail here, it's late, and I've only listened to them a couple of times. Starting with I, Robot, Akiva Goldsman was the final writer for this movie. He does more of the talking than, director, Alex Proyas which, for me being more of a writer (at this point), is just fine. And it is not until now that I realize (IMDB tab open) all the mega-movies he's responsible (in some part) for writing: Practical Magic, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, DaVinci Code just to name a few! (Side note: Looks like he's doing another Wil Smith movie called I Am Legend. Gonna have to research that one.)

Back to the commentary, Goldsman, like Mann on Collateral, gives you a lot of insite into the characters. This can be quite boring unless you're a writer. However, he is telling you things, as a writer, you should know about the character but won't necessarily show up in the script. Kinda like back story, but again, it's more for the writer to allow himself to create a fuller, more believable character. The reader (or movie patron) may never know nor need to know these things about a given character, yet will benefit from it nonetheless. They also talked a lot about their idea of what a "robot" movie should be and ways they worked around cliches.

Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to rip or even listen to the technical commentary for ID4, which I'm sure is more informational (learning-wise) than the regular commentary. This (and it is a director and writer) commentary was really one of those "although you can watch it on the screen yourself, I'm going to tell you what's happening anyway" and "here's a bit of trivia for you" kinda commentaries. These were fine back in the day, but for the enthusiastic "Flic Maker" like you and me, we'll pass on it! Great movie though.

If you've listened to any good commentaries lately, let me know. I'm sure I'll edit this one with a few more specifics.

Keep listening, keep writing!