Isaac Asimov’s robot stories inspired several films and TV shows, some of which had more success than others. The Internet Movie Database provides a complete list of Asimov’s involvement in film, including the movies and TV show episodes listed below. The films, especially the Hollywood blockbusters, are not always completely faithful to Asimov’s stories even when based on specific ones. Many of the films were originally released in Europe.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

I, Robot (2004)

The most recent film, I, Robot (2004), starring Will Smith, has caused much debate among Asimov fans. Though the film does not follow a specific story closely, it is loosely based on nine of Asimov’s robot stories (“Toast in the Machine”). The film follows the typical Asimov plot: robot (supposedly) breaks First Law and kills a human, robot is hunted down by humans, robot’s mysterious behavior is finally understood by humans to be the evidence of the robot following the Zeroth Law. The screenplay was originally a robotic murder mystery written by Jeff Vintar that was adapted and produced once the rights to Asimov’s work were obtained (Rothstein).

I, Robot is set in the near future and revolves around robots created by the company USR, or United States Robotics. USR has just released a new robot model, the NS-5, and soon many of them go haywire in typical robot-movie-plot style. The two main characters, Detective Del Spooner and Dr. Susan Calvin, naturally get swept into the story as they search for a rogue robot named Sonny. While Calvin is a popular character in many of Asimov’s stories, Spooner is not. He merely serves as the local detective to make the plot more believable. They are searching for Sonny because they believe he has broken the First Law and murdered a human being. In the process, they discover that Sonny follows the Zeroth Law, unlike the other robots with which they are familiar. (I won’t ruin the movie any more)