# How much unlike I, robot the book was I, robot the film? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 23, 2004, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264 "2004-12-23T02:07:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/41 "2018-04-09T17:50:31Z")
The movie is hilariously different and the fact that Susan Calvin is played by the blazingly attractive Bridget Moynahan is just a cherry on top. There’s no reason that Asimov’s Calvin couldn’t be attractive - I would just be thinking about **Allison Janney** 😉 Hijack: out of my old Asimov first editions, I still have I, Robot (The Foundation Trilogy went to fund some work on the house. Sigh.) Such a fun, 50’s drawing of a robot: [I, ROBOT by Asimov, Isaac - [1950]](https://www.biblio.com/book/i-robot-asimov-isaac/d/981375815) Mine isn’t in quite as good a shape, and I paid a small fraction of that $4,500 sales price. Actually, IIRC, I found a copy of Terry McMillan’s first book, Mama, right when her popularity took a big leap blowing up because of Waiting to Exhale. I think I got Mama for maybe $50 and used it to trade to get I, Robot, which was then going for ~$250 or so. I think I had to add a few bucks to the deal. Sweet. Back to your originally scheduled zombie thread. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2018, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/42 "2018-04-09T17:58:32Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The mere fact that they have a “Robot Revolt” with the robots trying to “get” the humans shows that there’s as big a disconnect between the filmmakers and the source here as there was in the case of _Starship Troopers_. Both _I, Robot_ and _Starship Troopers_ (the films) share the fact that the original versions of the screenplays had nothing whatsoever to do with the books from which they took their names. In both cases, the studios also had the rights to the books, and bolted the recognizeable-to-scifi-fans names onto unrelated projects, and added some minor elements from the books. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2018, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/43 "2018-04-09T19:21:37Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Both _I, Robot_ and _Starship Troopers_ (the films) share the fact that the original versions of the screenplays had nothing whatsoever to do with the books from which they took their names. In both cases, the studios also had the rights to the books, and bolted the recognizeable-to-scifi-fans names onto unrelated projects, and added some minor elements from the books. …as I’ve said on these Boards, often enough. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2018, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/44 "2018-04-09T21:17:32Z")
Fortunately, having never watched the movie, I cannot answer the question. I’ve never watched _Starship Troopers_, either. Thank God. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2018, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/45 "2018-04-09T23:53:32Z")
I would compare the film to the advanced tea substitute in Hitchhiker’s Guide. It is almost, but not quite entirely, unlike the real thing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2018, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/46 "2018-04-10T00:16:44Z")
Personally, I have to wonder why studios do the grafting-on-a-different-name thing. It’s not going to draw in non-fans, because they won’t know or care what _I, Robot_ or _Starship Troopers_ is. And it’s not going to draw in fans, because most of them are going to be upset that the movie is nothing at all like the book, and if anything more of them will stay away because of that. Obviously, they think that it’s going to put more butts in the seats, but just whose butts do they think that’ll be? ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2018, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/47 "2018-04-10T00:25:27Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Both _I, Robot_ and _Starship Troopers_ (the films) share the fact that the original versions of the screenplays had nothing whatsoever to do with the books from which they took their names. In both cases, the studios also had the rights to the books, and bolted the recognizeable-to-scifi-fans names onto unrelated projects, and added some minor elements from the books. Do you have a cite for the Starship Troopers case? Because the _plot_ of the film matched the book quite closely. It was the _tone_ that was utterly different - whereas Heinlein had a very positive view of the military, Verhoeven most emphatically did not. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2018, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/48 "2018-04-10T00:32:28Z")
Verhoeven specifically said that he made it a point not to read the book, because he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t even influenced by it. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2018, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/49 "2018-04-10T00:50:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Verhoeven specifically said that he made it a point not to read the book, because he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t even influenced by it. Right, but Verhoeven didn’t write the screenplay, Edward Neumeier did. I’d say plotwise, the movie matched the book at least as well as most other book based movies, like Harry Potter or LOTR,. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2018, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/50 "2018-04-10T12:24:26Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Right, but Verhoeven didn’t write the screenplay, Edward Neumeier did. I’d say plotwise, the movie matched the book at least as well as most other book based movies, like Harry Potter or LOTR,. Really? I figured the movie had a few references to the book, rather than being an adaptation of it. I actually found watching the movie, in all its silliness, to be a more entertaining experience than reading the novel, which tended to get sloggy and was dated by its pointless sexism. The redlettermedia guys (in an episode of their _Re:View_ series) had an interesting analysis of the film. Mike called it the exact opposite of the _Star Trek: TOS_ episode “Arena.” ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2018, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/51 "2018-04-10T12:58:28Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Really? I figured the movie had a few references to the book, rather than being an adaptation of it. I actually found watching the movie, in all its silliness, to be a more entertaining experience than reading the novel, which tended to get sloggy and was dated by its pointless sexism. > > The redlettermedia guys (in an episode of their _Re:View_ series) had an interesting analysis of the film. Mike called it the exact opposite of the _Star Trek: TOS_ episode “Arena.” In terms of just “this character did this, then this battle happened, and this guy died, etc. etc.” , it’s really close to the book. Certainly as close as any other book adapted to a movie that you’ll find, and closer than most, IMHO. Sure it did things like combine few characters into one (DuBois & Rasczak), add a pointless romance (Johnny & Dizzy), and cut out large sections (Johnny going to OCS). But in terms of overall arc, it matches the book very well: Johnny, Carmen & Carl join the military. Carmen gets sent to pilot training, Carl is a genius, Johnny gets to be infantry. Boot camp under Sgt. Zim is horrible & sadistic. First big battle is invasion of the Bug home planet, total disaster. Johnny joins the Roughnecks. One or two battles with the Roughnecks. Johnny becomes an officer. Invasion of Planet P to capture a brain bug. Like I said, the tone completely changed under the director - he saw the govt as fascistic, the sadism of training was unecessary, which was all very different than Heinlein’s vision. But that’s nothing like the I Robot case, where they basically wrote a robot murder mystery out of nowhere, then tacked on a few characters & scenes from various Asimov stories. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2018, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/52 "2018-04-10T23:27:36Z")
Since this thread has shambled back to life, I’ll use it to mention that there’s a [TV adaptation of the _Foundation_ trilogy in the works](https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/04/apple-takes-on-isaac-asimovs-giant-foundation-tril.html). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2018, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/53 "2018-04-10T23:40:51Z")
Of all science fiction works, I’m having a really hard time seeing how _Foundation_ could be adapted for the screen. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2018, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/54 "2018-04-10T23:44:22Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Do you have a cite for the Starship Troopers case? Because the _plot_ of the film matched the book quite closely. It was the _tone_ that was utterly different - whereas Heinlein had a very positive view of the military, Verhoeven most emphatically did not. From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_(film)#Background): > [@](#): > > The film started life as a script called Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine. When similarities, especially the “bugs”, were pointed out between this and the novel Starship Troopers, plans were made to license the rights to the book and tweak character names and circumstances to match. Verhoeven had never read the book, and attempted to read it for the film, but it made him “bored and depressed”, so he read only a few chapters: > > ``` > I stopped after two chapters because it was so boring … It is really quite a bad book. I asked Ed Neumeier to tell me the story because I just couldn't read the thing. It's a very right-wing book. > > ``` > [@](#): > > Because the movie originated from an unrelated script, with names and superficial details from the novel being added retroactively, there are many significant differences between the original book and the film. While the original novel has been accused of promoting militarism, fascism and military rule, the film is attributed to satirize these concepts by featuring grandiose displays of nationalism as well as news reports that are intensely fascist, xenophobic, and propagandistic. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2018, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/55 "2018-04-11T12:26:15Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_(film)#Background): Well, I strongly disagree with the Wikipedia article then, at least the 2nd quote, about “significant differences”, and “superficial details”. As I said before, the characters, plot, events, match the novel quite significantly. The tone is very different, sure, which was a conscious decision by the director, but the elements from the novel weren’t a bolt-on the way I Robot was. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/56 "2018-04-11T13:57:30Z")
The similarities you’re referring to are just “there were some battles”. To go beyond that, you have to ask things like “who were the battles fought against”, and even on something that basic, the movie differs from the book (the opening scene of the book, with the famous Twenty-Second Bomb, was against the Skinnies). Or maybe “how were the battles fought”: The book is famous for its powered armor suits, which were absent from the movie. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2018, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/57 "2018-04-11T14:21:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > There is no novella titled “I, Robot.” There is no Asimov story titled “I, Robot.” When Martin Greenberg put Asimov’s robot stories together into a collection he used the title _I, Robot_ without asking Asimov. “I, Robot” was the title of the first of a series of robot stories by Eando Binder, earlier as well as far more interesting and sophisticated than the minor engineering puzzles Asimov wrote. > > Most writers dismissed Asimov’s stories in the 1940s because his three laws have a giant unintended consequence if approached logically. Jack Williamson demonstrated this in “With Folded Hands” in the July 1947 _Astounding_. Surprise, surprise, the exact same consequence is the answer in the movie _I, Robot_. > > John W. Campbell devised the three laws and either he or Asimov codified them in final form. That was the greatest public relations move in the history of robotdom. Readers and later writers seized on them. Dozens of stories namecheck them. We’ll be seeing programmers sweating their brains out for years trying to apply them to self-driving cars and swearing loudly because they are unworkable in practice. You’ve mentioned all this before, **Exapno**. I’ve read a fair amount of Asimov’s work, so I only knew the story as he relates it in his introductions and essays, which, IIRC, do not give Campbell any credit for helping him develop the Three Laws. (Correct me if I’m wrong about that.) Can you tell me where I can read more about Campbell’s and Greenberg’s roles in shaping Asimov’s robot universe? ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/58 "2018-04-11T14:53:16Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Well, I strongly disagree with the Wikipedia article then, at least the 2nd quote, about “significant differences”, and “superficial details”. As I said before, the characters, plot, events, match the novel quite significantly. The tone is very different, sure, which was a conscious decision by the director, but the elements from the novel weren’t a bolt-on the way I Robot was. > [@Chronos](#): > > The similarities you’re referring to are just “there were some battles”. To go beyond that, you have to ask things like “who were the battles fought against”, and even on something that basic, the movie differs from the book (the opening scene of the book, with the famous Twenty-Second Bomb, was against the Skinnies). Or maybe “how were the battles fought”: The book is famous for its powered armor suits, which were absent from the movie. In fairness, reading the plotline in the Wiki article, the movie’s storyline is certainly more closely matched to the book than you would expect from simply taking an unrelated story and naming some characters appropriately (the “I, Robot” treatment). Not only are characters and their genesis taken from the story, but the general sequence of the movie’s events tracks (more or less) the sequence of the story in the book. So, while the assertion by **muldoonthief** upthread that the movie followed the book as closely as Harry Potter or LotR is clearly wrong (indeed, the first two HP movies have been chastised for following the book TOO closely), there was at least an attempt to shoehorn the square peg into the round hole. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2018, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/59 "2018-04-11T22:19:46Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > You’ve mentioned all this before, **Exapno**. I’ve read a fair amount of Asimov’s work, so I only knew the story as he relates it in his introductions and essays, which, IIRC, do not give Campbell any credit for helping him develop the Three Laws. (Correct me if I’m wrong about that.) > > Can you tell me where I can read more about Campbell’s and Greenberg’s roles in shaping Asimov’s robot universe? I’d have to go through Asimov’s many retellings of history, which mostly are told to the greater glory of Isaac Asimov who invented all robots all by himself. (I, Robot doesn’t have an introduction but The Rest of the Robots does and in his history of robots Asimov fails to mention any other science fiction robot stories or writers **at all**.) I’m not saying that Campbell wrote the three laws (although I have read others saying that). My understanding is that Campbell pointed out to Asimov that that statements he made in his early stories implied a series of laws and that it would be a good idea to make that explicit. Asimov introduced his First Law in “Reason,” Astounding Science-Fiction April 1941 and codified his Three Laws in “Runaround,” Astounding Science-Fiction March 1942, so there would be plenty of time for that discussion. I’ve suggested that either one of them may have wanted to stake a claim on the issue because of William McGivern’s story in June 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures, “Sidney, the Screwloose Robot." In it McGivern writes “You must be industrious, you must be efficient, you must be useful. Those are the three laws that are to govern your behavior.” Given lead times for publication, it’s doubtful that McGivern could have seen “Reason” in time to write a story and publish that story, although it’s just within possibility. Most people in the field read the handful of magazines published, so they - especially Asimov - would presumably have seen it. At this point, of course, nobody can say for sure. Greenberg’s role was simply to slap a famous title on Asimov’s collection. Or else Fred Pohl’s role as Asimov’s agent was to slap a famous title on Asimov’s collection and Greenberg went along with it. Asimov certainly didn’t want somebody else’s famous title on his book. The book was put together really fast in publishing terms. It appeared just a few months after the last story in it was in magazine form and none of Greenberg’s earlier titles that year mentioned it as an upcoming book, though all the surrounding books were. Whether they had a big battle over the title or Greenberg made it a fait accompli with no time to argue is also not known. For references, I can steer you to [me](https://www.flyingcarsandfoodpills.com/the-first-three-law-of-robotics) on McGivern and [me](http://gnomepress.com/variants-2/i-robot/) on I, Robot. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264/60 "2018-04-11T22:40:16Z")
You wrote that? Cool! I guess I’m surprised you didn’t comment on my having a first. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-unlike-i-robot-the-book-was-i-robot-the-film/281264.md?page=4)