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Toonz Media Group has teamed with Evolutionary Films and Mojo Global Arts on “Minibots,” a new animated feature targeting family audiences, with “Mulan” director Tony Bancroft at the helm. The project, set for release in 2026, was unveiled for pre-sales at AFM 2024.

“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” scribe Michael Ferris wrote the screenplay, which follows three young geniuses at a summer robotics camp who create sentient mini robots. The story tracks their efforts to protect their creations from a powerful tech company seeking to acquire the technology.

Toonz Media Group CEO P. Jayakumar said the collaboration with Evolutionary Films and Mojo Global Arts “has been a fantastic experience,” expressing confidence in the film’s potential in the global family entertainment market, describing it as a “lively, fun adventure.”

John Adams of Evolutionary Films emphasized the project’s broad appeal: “‘Minibots’ is a story that connects with the entire family.

Top film director Alex Proyas expressed doubt over designs presented at Tesla’s recent robotics event. Proyas, known for sci-fi films like “I, Robot” and “Dark City”, took to social media after Thursday’s event. He posted photos comparing Tesla’s new robots to landmark designs from his 2004 movie “I, Robot”.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed prototypes including Optimus, an autonomous robot, and the Cybercab self-driving taxi. Both drew comparisons to robots in “I, Robot”. That film pictured humanoid robots serving the public under Isaac Asimov’s famous “three rules of robotics.” It received an Oscar nomination for its effects.

Proyas questioned the new designs. “Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please?” he wrote online. However, Musk and Tesla have not yet responded to Proyas’ concerns.

Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please? #ElonMusk #Elon_Musk pic.twitter.com/WPgxHevr6E

— Alex Proyas (@alex_proyas) October...

On Thursday, co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, unveiled a long-awaited glimpse into the future with models for their new self-driving prototypes: the cybercab and the robovan. Also at the celebration was the new Tesla robot optimus, serving up drinks and engaging with the crowds.

Whether or not the Optimus robot was actually fully autonomous or, rather, puppeteered from afar is (very) debatable.

However, one person who seemed pretty certain about the origin of these designs was “I, Robot” director Alex Proyas. The director posted his complaint directly to Muskc’s social media of choice, X, commenting, “Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please?”

Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please? #ElonMusk #Elon_Musk pic.twitter.com/WPgxHevr6E

— Alex Proyas (@alex_proyas) October 13, 2024

Contained in the post were side-by-side images of “I, Robot’s” autonomous police force next to the optimus bot, transport in...

The director of the 1994 cult classic film “The Crow,” Alex Proyas, has publicly criticized the 2024 remake of the movie. Proyas took to social media to share his thoughts on the new version, directed by Rupert Sanders and starring Bill Skarsgård. He described the remake as a “cynical cash-grab” in light of its poor critical reception and box office performance since its release.

The original “The Crow” tragically saw the death of its star Brandon Lee during production. Proyas emphasized the film’s significance as Lee’s legacy. He argued the story “should remain” as a testament to Lee’s talent and life cut short. Proyas expressed these views in March ahead of the remake’s trailer release.

Reviews for the remake have been overwhelmingly negative. Critics described it as an “unfathomably awful goth remake.” Proyas acknowledged the reviews, writing “Wow. The reviews are brutal” on Facebook. The film struggled commercially as well,...

As Rupert Sanders‘ The Crow update suffers the fate that befalls so many remakes, at least one person isn’t so surprised.

Alex Proyas, who directed the original 1994 movie based on the James O’Barr graphic novel, seems to be reveling in the $50 million Lionsgate remake’s negative reviews after it bombed at the box office with a $4.6 million opening last weekend.

Directed by Sanders, it follows Eric Draven (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA Twigs) as they fall in love in a rehabilitation facility and run away together. But when demons from her past catch up with them and murder the lovers, Eric comes back to life in order to exact his revenge.

Proyas took to Facebook ahead of the movie’s Aug. 23 premiere, posting a monocle emoji with a screenshot of a review about the “unfathomably awful goth remake.”

“Wow.

I, Robot director Alex Proyas is currently in pre-production on an adaptation of Karel Capek’s seminal 1920 play, R.U.R.

Alex Proyas, director of such movies as The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot and more besides, is currently in pre-production on a film called R.U.R, it’s been revealed. It’s based on the 1920 play of the same name originally written in 1920, and is famous for introducing the word ‘robot’ into the sci-fi lexicon.

Proyas has written the screenplay himself, and if the brief description published by Deadline is anything to go by, it’ll be at least somewhat close to Capek’s original story. Set in a future where robots are mass-produced on an island factory called Rossum’s Universal Robots, the technology has long since spread worldwide, largely replacing human labour. The robots’ proliferation leads to much debate about their use as slave labour, and a pressure group called...

Alex Garland's "Ex Machina" isn't so much a film about the nature of artificial intelligence as it is a penetrating exposé of callow, sexist tech bros and how they, in their arrogant, macho way, try to define womanhood. "Ex Machina" follows Caleb (Donmhall Gleeson), a low-level coder at a high-tech robotics firm who has been specially selected to visit the home of the company's a-hole CEO Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Nathan has built a lifelike artificially intelligent robot named Ava (Alicia Vikander) who, he says, still needs to undergo several tests to ensure she is actually artificially intelligent. Caleb is tasked with interviewing Ava in what is essentially a prolonged Turing test.

Audiences soon learn, though, that Ava was constructed from Caleb's "porn profile" and that Nathan has installed her body with a working robotic vagina. As the two men discuss what qualifies as intelligence and consciousness from a machine perspective,...

Fresh from helping create Australia's first fully virtual production shoot for John Curran's psychological thriller 'Mercy Road', director and producer Alex Proyas will again use the techniques to build the world for a feature adaption of classic sci-fi play 'R.U.R'.

The post Alex Proyas readies another virtual production feature with ‘R.U.R.’ appeared first on If Magazine.

S1M0NE.Recently my MacBook showed signs of malfunction that I feared were fatal. I rushed to the Apple Store, where I was promptly introduced to Isaac, Apple's in-store virtual assistant—that is, a handheld device—to sign off on what was apparently a very standard procedure. Fifteen minutes and three Geniuses later, I was informed that numerous attempts had been made to restore my MacBook to its factory settings, all of which had inexplicably failed. “It just didn’t want to die,” said one of the Geniuses, directing me toward the newer models available for purchase. “It must have loved being yours.” I walked home in a state of devastation—and surprise at my devastation, too. At my desk I unboxed the machine, which I knew was in many ways identical to my former MacBook but for now felt uncanny. Powering up the screen, I was reminded...