h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Isaac Asimov's books included at least three other androids.

R. Daneel Olivaw in the Robot novels and some of the Foundation novels.

R. Landar in The Naked Sun

and Steven Beyerly in two I, Robot stories "Evidence", and "the Evitable Conflict"

me! me! i can name some others! there's also r. giskard, who i think is integral in the development of psychohistory, and dors venabili, who was married to psychohistory pioneer hari seldon (although, of course, you don't actually *find out* that she's an android until you read 'forward the foundation'). there's plenty of other minor characters, including the famous robbie...

I forgot about Dors, but Robby and Giskard arn't technically androids, since they don't appear human. Neither are Newtor, Cutie Speedy, Jane, Dave, or many of his other robots.

And you need to include
Asimvos laws of robotics in anything like this, if robots ever happen they;d have to include them.

I shalt not kill etc

IThey were well thought out, It's an important part of a robotics entry and if it ever comes to being, they'd be included.

fyi, *I Robot* is being shot here in Vancouver, Canada as we speak. I wouldn't get too excited about it though since I hear from some of the production crew that it is a truly *Hollywood* version of Asimov's vision.

Isn't everything nowadays?

Well, I am not actually supposed to discuss anything but let it just be said that the Robotic Laws and some names are the only things which survive the Hollywood *rewrite*.

Wil Smith stars, btw.

Probably, Hollywood won't even understand the point of the book in the first place.

The spirit is willing but apparently the flesh is weak. An extremely talented actor of the Southern Hemisphere persuasion has been let go do to *differences* with the director. I can only hope that the Laws themselves will make this project something more than the ordinary.

I have read almost all of Asimov's stories in this series, I can only hope that this will lead to something greater.

no good can ever come of hollywood trying to make a movie based on asimov's stories!!! i am still in agony over the bicentennial man.

Was that Asimov? I thought it was the fellow who wrote the Helconia series, Brian Aldis.

nope, it was asi. and i don't think he ever meant for it to be a comedy have you seen nightfall? it's also by asi, and did they make a mess of it...

Right you are, with Robert Silverberg taking a little blame.

Nightfall? It has been made into a film?

oh yes... i saw it in the store a couple of years ago (this was *before* i saw 'bicentennial man', mind you, so i had no idea what i was in for *yet*), and thought, hey, they've actually made an asi story into a movie! and so bought it. just say that there was nothing remotely alien about 'nightfall' the movie. they'd made it so that it felt like one of those 1940s indiana jones-y allan quartermain-y movies about major discoveries at excavation sites/some other exotic location. (ok, so asi used 'normal' words in the book so that the reader could relate to it more easily, but i'm sure he never meant for everything in it to be identical with humans and their culture - which was how the movie made it. the characters even had normal names, and sherrin was a fetching young girl!) it was *such* a let-down.

Luckily haven't heard of it and I will avoid it like the plague from now on.

btw, since it has hit the media, the actor that was sacked on I Robot last week was Sam Neill, which is a bit of a tie-in to Bicentennial Man. It was *creative differences* which in Hollywoodspeak means the director has never really met an actual actor before!

actually, i thought that sam neill did a good job in the bicentennial man - he *was* pretty much gerald martin to the core. i just hated it that they got robin williams to play andrew martin. (i mean, what does one think of when one mentions the name robin williams? patch adams!) i'd always felt that they should've made it more serious as a sf movie, and gotten someone more solemn for the part...

We are in total agreement, I was hoping that Neill would at least lift this production to the level of *OK* but I fear the end result will be another Hollywood disaster. I can only think that the future will allow someone to try again, but of course that doesn't do us much good now, does it?

i shall not comment, zoomer. i shall only say this: will smith (aka agent jay)... i robot... prince of bel air... i robot... (repeat as desired)

i remain sanguine about the robot novels being adapted, though. if they manage to get the right people to play elijah bailey and r. daneel, it can't possibly go wrong... can it?...

In this one *he's* computer generated, albeit a person will be present to provide something for the other actors.

gotta go, sorry.

i was talking about how will smith is obtrusive, actually. i think that the mark of a good actor is one who you can't remember being in what show (take samuel jackson, for example. i *can't* remember *him* in any movie, apart from star wars- which i mean as a good thing, of course) - where the person actually becomes the character, and is not just an actor portraying the character. and i would have to say that however talented he may be, will smith (and, sadly, robin williams) has the tendency to stick out like a sore thumb.

ah well... we'll see how things go...