This collects award-winning film scripts from a best-selling comic book writer. Enjoyliterary science fiction in the tradition of Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury.
Winner of 35 film festival awards, Robot Stories is an acclaimed independent movie by talented Asian American writer Greg Pak. In four intertwined stories, people struggle to connect in a technological world.
- My Robot Baby: a couple cares for a robot baby before they adopt a human child.
- The Robot Fixer: a mother tries to connect with her dying son by completing his toy robot collection.
- Machine Love: an office worker android learns that he, too, needs love.
- Clay: an old sculptor must choose between a natural death and digital immortality.
Plus more scripts that span Pak's burgeoning career: Mouse; Cat Fight Tonight; Corporis Vesalius; Asian Pride Porn and All Amateur Ecstasy. The book features a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, an original introduction and commentary by the author on each screenplay, plus cast photographs, a glossary of terms, and an innovative format designed to make screenplays easier to read than ever.
The film Robot Stories was science fiction from the heart: four stories starring Tamlyn Tomita (Joy Luck Club, Babylon 5) and Sab Shimono (The Big Hit, Suture) in which utterly human characters struggle to connect in a world of the near future. Appealing to fans of fantasy and film, and teachers of Asian-American studies, the screenplay has earned the praise as "the kind of science fiction sophisticated audiences crave and deserve."
The Chicago Tribune called the film "one of the most moving pieces I've seen all year," and TV Guide wrote "Following in the footsteps of Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling and Philip K. Dick rather than George Lucas, Pak returns to the tradition of intelligent, humanistic sci-fi and reminds us of the value of good genre fiction." The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel forecasted, "If this well-done collection of four shorts was on paper instead of film, you'd find it in the pages of The New Yorker or Atlantic Monthly. Writer-director Greg Pak focuses on our contemporary computerized lives -- occasionally delving into the future -- in a weighty and relevant anthology."
Industry Reviews
"Forget 'Hellboy.' 'Robot Stories' is the real deal -- a science-fiction with a brain and a heart." - Pittsburgh TribuneReview
?Robot Stories' tagline is 'science fiction from the heart,' a phrase author and genre specialist Steven Schneider finds appropriate. ?Robot Stories plays differently from a lot of the science-fiction films I've seen,' said Schneider, the author of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die... ?It made me reflect on science fiction's deep and long-standing romantic side. Greg is less interested in trying to pull the wool over our eyes by giving us something spectacular-looking than he is in exploring human relationships.'...In fact, 2004 may end up being American cinema's year of the robot, with Pak and his independent sci-fi movie getting the jump on Hollywood."
- Jason Silverman, Wired
"Pak is an extremely gifted screenwriter, a fact you can confirm by reading Robot Stories and More Screenplays, which collects several short and two feature-length scripts, all with introductory notes....There's a clear sense throughout that Pak is giving the writing of his movies the attention it deserves and, not only that, has a real gift for it. It's a relief to see a young director relying so heavily on strong writing. Pak's interests are too complex to be served by anything less...Pak's robot stories ultimately challenge our assumptions about what we are doing as humans, as people, and with the lives and world we make." - Strange Horizons
"An exhilarating ride by a masterful filmmaker, four utterly engrossing tales which speak with the wisdom of parables to our technologically-obsessed age. Greg Pak infuses each moment of this beautiful film with an infectious wonder at the joys and complexities of existence."- David Henry Hwang, Tony Award Winner
"It's a crying shame they don't make more science fiction movies like writer/director Greg Pak's independent film Robot Stories...Robot Stories and More Screenplays includes a foreword by David Henry Hwang (playwright for M. Butterfly), a preface by Pak, and useful editor's notes on reading and understanding screenplays and their unique conventions. It's a great package...given Pak's thoughtful introductions at the start of each 'chapter', it's also a rare opportunity for up-and-coming filmmakers to get a glimpse into the art of short filmmaking." - SciFi Dimensions
"As the title says, Pak uses an ostensible sci-fi motif to link his four pieces. What truly binds them, however, is a subtle exploration of the tension between the human and the synthetic, and the sometimes fuzzy distinction between the two. The film also has a distinguishable arc, beginning with an exceedingly nontraditional 'birth' and closing with a triumphant death...He's an uncannily assured visual storyteller...The result is a quietly impassioned, genuinely stirring indie rarity." - Mark Holcomb, The Village Voice
"Greg Pak's fantasy anthology piece, which details the ways robots have complicated the lives of humans, has a dexterous sense of wonder...He's a talent with a future."- Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times
"An award winning filmmaker and now hot as hell newcomer...[Pak] is a writer on the cusp, right at the unique precipice between upstart and industry great."-Joe Quesada, Editor in Chief, Marvel Comics
