Hollywood director calls out Elon Musk for ‘copying his robots’-Robert Oliver-Entertainment – Metro

Elon Musk has fallen foul of a Hollywood film director (Picture: Jen Golbeck/SOPA Images/Shutters)

A famous Hollywood director has accused Elon Musk of playing copycat after the SpaceX and Tesla owner unveiled two brand new designs.

Australian filmmaker Alex Proyas, 61, took to the Musk-owned platform X to ask the multi-billionaire whether he could ‘have his designs back’.

Proyas’ most successful film is his 2004 Isaac Asimov adaptation I, Robot, which starred Will Smith and Shia LeBeouf, and grossed the present-day equivalent of £440million.

Loosely based on Asimov’s short story collection from 1950, I, Robot was set in the year 2035 in a world where humanoid robots are bound by law to serve humanity.

While reviews were mixed at the time of its release, Proyas’ film still has a strong cult following and has been praised for its futuristic designs of robots, sports cars, and public transportation.

Now the veteran movie director has accused Elon Musk of copying his designs for the 20-year-old film after Tesla unveiled the Tesla Cybercab and Robovan.

Alex Proyas was not happy with the final designs Tesla designs (Picture: Alex Proyas/Twitter)

The Cybercab – which was unveiled as Musk arrived in it to the We, Robot event – is an autonomous vehicle that is set to be available to the public in 2027.

Meanwhile, the Robovan – another self-driving vehicle – can seat up to 20 people and plans to be adapted for commercial use in the future.

On X, Proyas posted an image that showed the Cybercab, Robovan, and Tesla Optimus robots side-by-side with his own designs from just over two decades ago.

In the message, he asked, ‘Hey Elon, can I have my designs back please?’ attaching two hashtags both bearing Elon Musk’s name.

Do you spot the resemblance? (Picture: VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

I, Robot starred Will Smith as Detective Del Spooner (Picture: Patrick Riviere/Getty)

The Robovan has been likened to designs in I, Robot (Picture: Tesla/ZUMA Press Wire/Shuttersto)

The post has now been retweeted over 15,000 times, with the overall view count currently standing at 4.8 million – it’s also drawn over 100,000 likes at the time of writing.

In support of Proyas, @CSSkeptic posted: ‘When the director of one of the three movies you’ve been ripping off for ideas for decades has finally had enough of your s**t.’

@MortalKen simply commented, ‘That scans,’ while other users claimed Musk had also taken inspiration from other sci-fi films such as Total Recall and The Matrix.

Alex Proyas (left) made the claims on Musk-owned platform X (Picture: Patrick Riviere/Getty Images)

However, other users were quick to point out that Proyas’ own designs were already incredibly similar in appearance to robots in films from the 1920s and ideas for transportation in the 1930s.

@LudwigVonMercer said, ‘The original humanoid robot from Metropolis, art deco era locomotives, and the 1939 Duesenberg Coupe would all like a word,’ while displaying a picture that compared work from the early 20th century with Prayos’ designs.

Musk was also defended by people who claimed Prayos should be celebrating that his fictional futuristic designs have been brought to life by Tesla.

@WildbareStepf said: ‘Weird take. You feel you inspired the future yet you’re trying to dunk on the person who made it a reality.’

In the film, Will Smith plays a police detective who is sceptical about the value of robots in society, with a dark incident from his past preventing him from embracing the future of technology.

When Smith’s character Del Spooner is asked to investigate the apparent suicide of Dr. Alfred Lanning, head of US Robotics, he suspects that a lone robot has gone rogue.

Metro.co.uk has reached out to Elon Musk’s representatives.

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