Kubrick's story, Spielberg's film: A.I. Artificial intelligence

In 1963 Stanley Kubrick declared that, “Dr. Strangelove came from my desire to do something about the nuclear nightmare.” Thirty years later, he was preparing to film another story about the human impulse for self-destruction. Unfortunately, Kubrick passed away in 1999, before his project could be fully realized. However, fellow visionary Steven Spielberg took on the project and A.I. Artificial Intelligence debuted in theaters two years after Kubrick’s death. While Kubrick’s concept shares similarities with the finished film, there are significant differences between his screenplay and the film Spielberg created.

In Kubrick’s Story, Spielberg’s Film: A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Julian Rice examines the intellectual sources and the cinematic process that expressed the extraordinary ideas of one great artist through the distinctive vision of another. Rice explores how the directors’ disparate sensibilities aligned and where they diverged. A.I. is decidedly a Kubrick film in its concern for the future of the world, and it is both a Kubrick and a Spielberg film in the alienation of its central character. However, Spielberg’s alienated characters evolve through friendships, Kubrick’s protagonists are markedly alone.

By analyzing Kubrick’s treatment and Spielberg’s finished film, Rice is able to compare the imaginations of two gifted but very different filmmakers, and draw conclusions about their unique conceptions. Kubrick’s Story, Spielberg’s Film is a fascinating look into the creative process of two of cinema’s most profound artisans and will appeal to scholars of film as well as to fans of both directors.