In order to bolster the title range of Blu-ray 3D, and give more reason for consumers to adopt the format, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has spent a considerable amount of time and money in converting the Alex Proyas directed movie I, Robot into 3D. And purely for a home release.
It will hit the UK on 22 October, and Fox invited Pocket-lint to visit its studios in Century City, Los Angeles to see some of the footage, find out how the 2D to 3D conversion was performed and to play around with some of the props from the original film itself.
We'll be revealing all on the movie and the conversion soon, but in the meantime we thought we'd share with you what we thought of actually handling and standing with genuine props from I, Robot - including a full size US Robotics NS-5 robot.
For those who are yet to see the film - which Fox believes could be more than a few of you - the 3D release may be the first time you encounter it, so we'll not give too much away. Needless to say, there are plenty of robots and the NS-5 series appear throughout.
One of them, Sonny, is, alongside Will Smith, the main star of the movie and although the full-size NS-5 we encountered is the same shape and height, it was mainly used in background scenes and, because of the red light in its chest, clearly wasn't a stand in for the lead robot itself.
The red light is the only interactive part of the model. It doesn't move and only has the one operable wire emanating from the rear, with a switch to turn the bulb on and off.
What we were massively surprised about, however, was how tall the robot stands. Without an actual measuring tape to hand, we'd have to take a guess that it's 6-foot 3-inches/6-foot 4 from floor to the tip of its head. Will Smith is 6-foot 1.5-inches, so it'd even be taller than him.
It's also made of incredibly solid and well-constructed parts. You'd expect some corners to be cut for a background prop - spray-painted plastic rather than actual metal sections - but the materials used give the impression that this unit could indeed be built for real one day.
The intricate detail, such as the small parts in the head cavity, is highly impressive too. And it's worth pointing out that the face recognition software on a smartphone's camera actually highlighted the NS-5 as a genuine subject. Indeed, it's actually a little bit unnerving the way the eyes stare at you.
It's an incredible piece that's now stored in the Fox Archives on the studio lot.
Also displayed purely for our visit were a number of other props from the film, including the police badge used by Will Smith as Detective Del Spooner. We also got to hold a wave around one of the guns from the movie that, while made of rubber, feels incredibly solid and remarkably heavy. The realistic weight would have made it easier to act with.
The smaller items may not have been quite as impressive as the full-size USR NS-5 robot, but they're just as detailed nonetheless.
I, Robot 3D will be out 22 October in both a Blu-ray 3D edition and Limited Edition featuring a life-size replica of Sonny's head.
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