Alex Proyas has been vocal about The Crow remake, but he now criticizes Tesla for their strong resemblances to his movie’s designs.
There has been much revealed from Elon Musk’s Tesla company as of late. The brand that has been known for its electric, self-driving cars has unveiled its intended future distribution for further technological advancements of robotics and driverless transports. It all seems like a plot right out of a movie, and Alex Proyas, who directed the 2004 Will Smith sci-fi vehicle I, Robot, has taken to Musk’s home turf on social media to call out his product’s designs. Proyas implies that the Tesla models are too eerily similar to the designs from his Issac Asimov adaptation.
In Proyas’ post, he writes the caption, “Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please? #ElonMusk #Elon_Musk” while displaying side-by-side comparisons of the newly revealed Tesla Optimus Robots and driverless vehicles with his own film’s designs.
Many responses to Proyas’ accusation came to Musk’s defense and pointed out that Tesla’s designs seem more inspired by science-fiction sources that predate the 2004 movie. Another person posted a picture of a futuristic train design from the 30s with the caption, “This 1936 design?” Additionally, another commenter pointed to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis as inspiration for the robot and Art Deco-era locomotives and the 1939 Duesenberg Coupe as inspirations.
Proyas hasn’t minced words this year when it comes to his past properties. He has been very vocal about the new The Crow remake. In the build-up to the reboot’s release, Proyas shared a screen shot of The Guardian’s review, which called the film “unfathomably awful.” Later, he commented, “Wow. The reviews are brutal.” And when the box office numbers came in, revealing that the new The Crow had an opening weekend of just $4.6 million, Proyas said, “Box office is a bloodbath.” He added, “I thought the remake was a cynical cash-grab. Not much cash to grab it seems.” He and The Crow ’94 screenwriter David J. Schow both shared an image saying they had been “Marked safe from seeing Crow 2024 today.” Proyas then shared a link to a negative review of the reboot on YouTube, commenting, “I love how enraged this (reviewer) gets. Is that a “thumbs down”? Maybe they can lend their DCPs to film schools for classes on how NOT to make a movie? The theatres sure won’t need ’em after next weekend.” He ended with a laughing emoji. Sharing a negative review in Spanish, Proyas asked, ““Gigantesque Insulte!”? Is that good?” Again with a laughing emoji. In his most recent post, he shared a review that called the reboot the worst movie of the year and said, “The review we’ve all been waiting for. It’s a bit like flogging a dead horse now so I think I’ll stop after this… until another funny one comes along!” So it’s safe to say that Proyas is really enjoying the reboot’s failure.