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American Morning
"A.I." Tops Weekend Box Office
Aired July 02, 2001 - 10:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All I'm doing is chatting about Steven Spielberg.
I wonder whether the guy ever gets tired of this. He's landed at the top of the box office this weekend again with "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" this time. The sci-fi fantasy starring Haley Joel Osment as a robot boy looking for love took in an estimated $30.1 million. Last week's top film, "The Fast and Furious," slowed a bit, slipping to the No. 2 spot. The street racing flick took in $20 million in ticket sales, bringing that film's 10 day total to $77 million.
Eddie Murphy is still talking to the animals. "Dr. Dolittle 2" landed in the third spot with an estimated $15.4 million. And Angelina Jolie's "Laura Croft, Tomb Raider" and director John Singleton's "Baby Boy" rounded out the top five.
As you just heard, intelligence ruled at the box office this weekend. "A.I." was a labor of love for Steven Spielberg. He inherited the project from his friend and mentor: the late filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.
CNN's Sherri Sylvester has more on the weekend's number one film.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "A.I., ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Feel it.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: That's creepy.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Whoa! You're so real.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Creating this world of "Artificial Intelligence" required the cinematic intelligence of an Oscar-winning technical team, the expertise of director Steven Spielberg and the vision of the late Stanley Kubrick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HALEY JOEL OSMENT, ACTOR: I'm a boy.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: You are a real boy. At least as real as I've ever made one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SYLVESTER: Kubrick bought the short story for the film in the 1980's and developed the feature-length script. His widow and brother-in-law explain how he came to Spielberg.
JAN HARLAN, DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER: He made an attempt of building a robot child. It didn't work. It looked hideous. He gave up on it. He decided that he would wait until computer graphics were more advanced. At that time, already he spoke to Steven Spielberg.
SYLVESTER: He decided Spielberg should direct, and the two talked about the story for several years.
STEVEN SPIELBERG, DIRECTOR: And he said that "this was closer to your sensibility than my own" -- his exact words to me -- but I really feel that I had to work really hard to adapt to Stanley's sensibility.
SYLVESTER: The robot boy debacle was solved when then 12-year- old Haley Joel Osment was cast as David.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OSMENT: Steven did just a really great job of actually getting Stanley's ideas and his style into the film. Steven did a great job of creating that within this film, and having Stanley's presence around, even though he is gone, on this film, made it very special for all of us.
SYLVESTER: But this high-profile collaboration produced little advanced information about the film's plot. Kubrick and Spielberg have long-standing reputations for secrecy.
FRANCIS O'CONNOR, ACTOR: They had false call sheets that would go out, and sending stuff out onto the Internet, I think, that was misleading. Nobody had a script. Like, I had my section of the script. I read it once. Heads of departments weren't allowed to have their own scripts, to go and read it. And it was just controlling the information that would go out.
SYLVESTER: The film's mechanical design may be a complex hybrid of Kubrick's brains and Spielberg's heart.
JUDE LAW, ACTOR: There are several nods to Kubrick throughout, and the pacing is very Kubrickian, but ultimately it's Steven Spielberg's movie.
SYLVESTER: But few equate Kubrick with family films, and some have questioned whether "A.I." is suitable for children.
SPIELBERG: This is a PG-13 movie, but I think -- I would take my 9, 10, 11-year-old to see, but I would take them to see it with me sitting there next to them.
SYLVESTER: Let your intelligence be your guide. "A.I." opens nationwide this weekend.
Sherri Sylvester, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKWU: Negotiators for Hollywood actors and producers came a little bit closer to peace this weekend in an attempt to avoid an industry-crippling strike. Representatives met late into the night yesterday in Los Angeles, with both sides saying they remain committed to reaching a new contract.
The actors contracts expired yesterday. But they have agreed to continue working under the old deal while negotiations continue. A work stoppage by actors could mean delays for fall TV shows and a complete halt of movie production. Negotiations resume later today.
"A happy fellow always smiling": That's how actor Kirk Douglas remembers two-time Oscar winner, Jack Lemmon. Douglas was among the stars at a private memorial service for Lemmon yesterday in Los Angeles. Lemmon died Wednesday from complications from cancer. Other guests included Kevin Spacey and Andy Garcia.
That's all we have for now. But in one hour, we'll take a closer look at the weekend's top movies. Also, later today, Janet Jackson is topping the charts with her hit single "All For You." And for all of us, she's beginning a world tour. We caught up with this superstar to find out what she's up to. That's during our "Showbiz Today Reports" at 4:35 p.m. Eastern.
Until then, I'm Michael Okwu in New York.
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