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Spike Jonze's New Film About Robot Love Guaranteed to Make Us Cry

by Amar Toor on January 25, 2010 at 10:59 AM

spike jonze

Following last year's 'Where the Wild Things Are,' director Spike Jonze has returned to the screen at the Sundance Film Festival with yet another work inspired by a children's book. Instead of stretching a 338-word book into a feature-length film, however, he's decided to keep things a bit more compact with his latest 30-minute short about robot love in Los Angeles. Inexplicably financed by Absolut Vodka, 'I'm Here' recently debuted at Sundance, and, according to Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider, has already been slated to air on IFC -- although official confirmation has yet to come.

As you can see in the trailer below, the robotic special effects are noticeably more rudimentary than the enchanted, humanistic, high-tech monsters that frolicked onscreen in Jonze's last film. But it seems like Jonze has somehow managed to pull the same kind of expressiveness out of these relatively simplistic robots. And even though the trailer is pretty short, there appear to be some other general similarities between this and 'Wild Things': child-like dialogue; a lo-fi soundtrack; and a theme of searching for human connection in an inhuman environment. Plus, like 'Wild Things,' 'I'm Here' is based on a timeless children's book, albeit more loosely.

According to Jonze, the concept was inspired by Shel Silverstein's beloved book 'The Giving Tree,' and one of the robotic protagonists is even named Sheldon in honor of the late author. Said Jonze, "I was trying to take the influence of 'The Giving Tree,' but write about relationships." We're getting misty just thinking about what that could possibly mean. [From: BuzzFeed and Entertainment Weekly]

Tags: absolut, film, im here, ImHere, movie, robots, short film, ShortFilm, spike jonze, SpikeJonze, sundance, top, Where the Wild Things Are, WhereTheWildThingsAre

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