When Steven Spielberg first heard Stanley Kubrick mention his idea for the film "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" back in 1985, he wasn't just intrigued to hear Kubrick's fantasy of the future--of a world divided between "mecha" (mechanical creatures, or robots) and "orga" (organic or human), where the "mecha" are treated like African slaves back in the 19th century. He wasn't merely fascinated by a world Spielberg likens to "Mary Shelley creating a billion Frankensteins, some of whom are kind and creative and necessary and others who are malevolent."
He was mostly amazed that Kubrick was confiding in him at all.
It was the first time that Kubrick, the eccentric, reclusive auteur of "A Clockwork Orange" and "Dr. Strangelove," trusted Spielberg.
FOR THE RECORD
Los Angeles Times Wednesday May 9, 2001 Home Edition Part A Part A Page 2 A2 Desk 1 inches; 32 words Type of Material: Correction
Song lyrics--A lyric from the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" was misquoted in a Sunday Calendar story on the movie "A.I. Artificial Intelligence." The correct line is "Like a bolt out of the blue, fate steps in and sees you through."
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday May 13, 2001 Home Edition Calendar Page 2 Calendar Desk 3 inches; 82 words Type of Material: Correction
Summer Sneaks--In the May 6 Sunday Calendar movie preview, a lyric from the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" was misquoted in a story about "A.I. Artificial Intelligence." The correct line is "Like a bolt out of the blue, fate steps in and sees you through." Also, the name of artist Toulouse-Lautrec was misspelled in a story on "Moulin Rouge." In the preview list, the name of screenwriter Ken Daurio was misspelled in the credits for "Bubble Boy," and two writers were omitted from the credits for the film "Tortilla Soup"--Ramon Menendez & Tom Musca and Vera Blasi received final credit.
"I felt that was a breakthrough in our relationship," says the director. "The story wasn't as important to me as was the fact that for the first time since we had met in 1979, he was actually telling me a story he was considering for himself as a filmmaker."
Sixteen years later, Kubrick is dead, and the future he described in his landmark work "2001: A Space Odyssey" is upon us, looking nothing like what he envisioned. Yet "A.I," a different fairy tale of the future, arrives in theaters in June courtesy of Spielberg, a filmmaker whose visceral, uplifting aesthetic is the polar opposite of Kubrick's chilly, magisterial vision of mankind as an unrepentant animalistic beast.
The $90-million film is based on Brian Aldiss' short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long," with an elaborate treatment and storyboards supervised by Kubrick in the early '90s, and a script written by Spielberg himself. The short story takes place in the future, where obesity and malnutrition have been banished, and the rich can change the view from their windows at whim. Because of tight population controls, a proper corporate wife (whose husband not incidentally manufactures robots) has not been permitted to bear a child and must make do with an android boy, who is constantly asking his teddy bear--also an android--if he's real.
The tag line circulating through cyberspace--which keys off something Kubrick told Aldiss--is "Pinocchio," although Spielberg cautions that "'Pinocchio' is a catalyst for the beginning of an odyssey, a journey into the future. But it's not the movie."
Indeed, forget any happy Disney-esque images of a singing, dancing Jiminy Cricket. David, the android played in the film by Haley Joel Osment (the star of "The Sixth Sense") meets up with another "mecha" Spielberg calls "his scoutmaster." This is Joe Gigolo, played by rising British star Jude Law.
'I'm a love mecha," explains Law, who certainly seems well cast. "He's a gigolo. He has various clients, some he just talks to, some he massages. Some he presumably takes a bit further. They are able to change the way in which he seduces." Law, who studied mime and peacock movements to prepare, says his character does actually sing and dance in the film "as part of entertainment. He's a full-service mecha."
It's hard to imagine a gigolo in a Spielberg film--even a robotic one. One of the great mysteries of "A.I." is how the two disparate sensibilities mesh.
"It's Steven's film," says Law, "but Stanley was talked about every day." He catches himself, "I can't say 'Stanley,' because I never met him. There was very much the underbelly of Kubrick around, which I quite liked."
"It's Steven's interpretation of what Stanley was trying to do," says producer Bonnie Curtis. "My joke is that it's Stevely Kuberg. It's a complete meld of both of them. Every word, every thing you see has both of them in it."
The production has been shrouded in secrecy. This is the first extensive interview Spielberg has given. He has apparently not only inherited the auteur's treatment, but also co-opted his neurosis. "It's my insurance policy that he doesn't haunt me afterward," he says with a laugh.
"Stanley was fastidious about this kind of security. It's to honor his wishes that I tightened this particular production down." But, he adds, "It was a kind of lonely experience. Not to have visitors come to the set." During his lunch break from shooting "Minority Report," a futuristic thriller with Tom Cruise, the 54-year old director admits he's relieved not to have the pressure of Kubrick's ghost watching over him. "I'm having so much fun. When I did 'A.I.,' I had Stanley with me every day, and I felt very inhibited to honor him and at the same time to really entertain a lot of people. With 'Minority Report,' I feel very liberated just to do anything."
Spielberg is sitting at a picnic table under an awning that stretches between his trailer and Cruise's much larger gray bus, his on-set home. Cruise's kids zip by on scooters.
