Editing Harlan Ellison (section)

===''I, Robot''===
Shortly after the release of ''Star Wars'' (1977), [[Ben Roberts (screenwriter)|Ben Roberts]] contacted Ellison to develop a script based on [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[I, Robot]]'' short story collection for [[Warner Bros.]]; Ellison and Asimov had been long-time friends<!-- Asimov didn't die until 1992, so what the heck is this about? -->, so Ellison may be presumed to have attached particular significance to the project. In a meeting with the Head of Production at Warners, [[Robert Shapiro (filmmaker)|Robert Shapiro]], Ellison concluded that Shapiro was commenting on the script without having read it and accused him of having the "intellectual and cranial capacity of an artichoke". Shortly afterwards, Ellison was dropped from the project. Without Ellison, the film came to a dead end, because subsequent scripts were unsatisfactory to potential directors. After a change in studio heads, Warner allowed Ellison's script to be serialized in ''[[Asimov's Science Fiction]]'' magazine and published in book form.<ref>
From Harlan Ellison's introduction to ''I Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay'', {{ISBN|0-446-67062-6}}</ref> The 2004 film [[I, Robot (film)|''I, Robot'']], starring Will Smith, has no connection to Ellison's script.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.scifi-review.net/i-robot-the-illustrated-screenplay-by-harlan-ellison.html |title=I, Robot – The Illustrated Screenplay by Harlan Ellison |last=Stettin |website=The Science Fiction Review |date=August 3, 2012 |access-date=December 15, 2016 |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220172306/http://www.scifi-review.net/i-robot-the-illustrated-screenplay-by-harlan-ellison.html |url-status=live }}</ref>