S1m0ne

Infobox Film
name = S1m0ne


caption = Promotional poster.
director = Andrew Niccol
producer = Andrew Niccol
Daniel Lupi (co-producer)
writer = Andrew Niccol
starring = Al Pacino
Catherine Keener
Rachel Roberts
distributor = New Line Cinema
released = 23 August, 2002
runtime = 117 min
country = United States
language = English
budget =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0258153

"S1m0ne" (also spelled "Simone") is a 2002 science fiction drama film written, produced and directed by Andrew Niccol, starring Al Pacino.

Plot

When the main star of disillusioned director Viktor Taransky's new movie walks away, Taransky is forced to find a replacement or never work again. Unfortunately for him, nobody wants to work with him any more.

Viktor tries a new computer program on a hard disk he inherited from his acquaintance Hank Aleno. Viktor uses the program as a last, desperate attempt to finish the film. The system allows him to use a computer-generated woman to play the movie's central character. Viktor names his synthetic actress "Simone", a name derived from the computer program's title, "Simulation One". Seamlessly incorporated into the movie, Simone gives a fantastic performance. The studio, and soon the world, starts to ask "who is Simone?"

The movie is a great success, and Viktor markets her as a real person. He gives phone and camera interviews, but it becomes difficult to maintain. Two people doggedly pursue him and force him to showcase Simone "live" after they discover that he used stock photography as a background during the interview instead of being on that site as he claimed she was. Simone ascends to even greater heights, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress.

After a while, Viktor decides to kill her off. He has her star a film of her own about zoophilia, hoping to disgust audiences. However, they continue to love her work. He then uses a computer virus to erase the program and dumps all of the DVDs and computer-related information into a trunk and throws it out to sea. During the funeral, policeman comes, opens the coffin where there is only Simone's poster. He is taken to the police station and is shown a security camera video where he is seen putting the trunk into the motor-boat (he had driven the boat to middle of the sea and only then thrown the trunk into the water). He is arrested for her murder. In his defence he admits that Simone was just a computer program, and that he put all the program discs in the chest and dropped it into the sea. Viktor's wife and daughter enter his studio, find the program, and realize that Viktor's actress is only a simulation (he forgot a virus floppy disk in the computer). They revive Simone and he is freed from custody. The film ends with Simone and Viktor holding an interview about their new "baby" before a post-credits sequence shows Viktor creating fake footage of Simone in a supermarket, which one of her pursuers sees, believing it real.

Cast

* Al Pacino - Viktor Taransky
* Catherine Keener - Elaine Christian
* Evan Rachel Wood - Lainey Christian
* Rachel Roberts - Simone
* Winona Ryder - Nicola Anders
* Jay Mohr - Hal Sinclair
* Pruitt Taylor Vince - Max Sayer
* Jason Schwartzman - Milton
* Elias Koteas - Hank Aleno (uncredited)
* Rebecca Romijn - Faith (uncredited)

Production and background

Most of the names in the film are chosen for their link with computers. The title could be interpreted as "sim"ulation number "one" and includes both numbers of the binary number system. Other characters in the film are named after computer companies: Corel, Claris, Dell, Hewlett, Mac and Lotus. Simone's costar (Jay Mohr) is named Hal Sinclair, after the computer HAL 9000 from "". Viktor Taransky is named after the Victor 9000.

The movie is inspired by Ray Kurzweil, specifically Kurzweil's 2001 TED Conference presentation of his female alter ego, Ramona. The scene in which Viktor performs a concert is modeled very closely with Kurzweil's Ramona presentation.

The film producers thought of using an actual computer-generated character to play the part of Simone. After discussions with the Screen Actors Guild, who were worried that the replacement of all actors would be the next inevitable step, they decided to use an unknown actress in the role and make her look slightly less realistic in post-production. Pre-release publicity issued to news media actually did suggest that a completely computer-generated actress would be used. Rachel Roberts, the Canadian fashion model who played the role, was not initially credited in the movie (her credit was added for the home video release; in the theatrical release "Simone" was credited as "herself"), and she worked under the pseudonym "Anna Green" during production. The actress is actually referred to by this pseudonym in a behind-the-scenes featurette included on the DVD release.

Response

Critics generally panned the movie -- "Metacritic" reports that the average reviewer scored the film [http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/simone?q=Simone 49/100] .

The movie was also a financial failure. Opening weekend saw poor sales of $3.8 million from nearly 2,000 theaters. "S1m0ne" ended up with $19,576,023 worldwide, which was among Al Pacino's lowest grossing movies. However, the movie later generated income from DVDs and performances on in-bus movie sessions, such as by Adirondack Trailway busses in May 2008.

External links

* [http://www.amalgamatedfilms.com/ Amalgamated Film Studios] , website for the fictional film studio in the film
* [http://www.viktortaransky.com/ www.viktortaransky.com] , website for Pachino's character Viktor Taransky
* [http://www.pigmovie.com/ "I Am Pig"] , website for Simone's fictional movie "I Am Pig"
* [http://www.eternitymovie.com/ "Eternity Forever"] , website for fictional film "Eternity Forever"
* [http://www.sunrisemovie.com/ "Sunrise Sunset"] , website for fictional film "Sunrise Sunset"
* [http://www.forhank.com/ For Hank] , tribute to fictional character Hank
*
*
* [http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0514.html Reflections on "S1m0ne"] by Ray Kurzweil