Audi Concept Car Being Featured in Upcoming Will Smith Sci-Fi Flick

"I, Audi..." - Audis role in New Science Fiction Film I, Robot

Its hardly a strange site to see movies and car companies working together hand in hand anymore. Not as in movies like The Italian Job or Gone in Sixty Seconds where the cars themselves are the stars, but rather when a company helps in association with the production of a film as General Motors did by featuring its complete line of concepts in Stallones Demolition Man.

Audi is no stranger to having its vehicles at the forefront of blockbuster Hollywood productions as demonstrated in the 2000 hit Mission Impossible II (Audi TT, Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton), the car-chase crazy flick Ronin (Audi S8, Robert de Nero, Jean Reno) and About a Boy starring Hugh Grant. VWs premium brand is about to take yet another key role in the upcoming science-fiction thriller, I, Robot.

Audi will be filling the same role that Lexus did in the recent film Minority Report, whereupon the star drives the car. Rather than seeing Tom Cruise behind the wheel of a futuristic, candy apple red Lexus, well be seeing Will Smith piloting a specially altered Audi concept vehicle. The silver vehicle featured in the accompanying sketch here is the star vehicle - a sleek sports car with 22nd century flair. Its the sort of Audi that could be expected in the far-off future. These vehicles were commissioned by Twentieth Century Fox and film director Alex Proyas, and completed by Audi Design.

I, Robot is set in Chicago in the year 2035. Will Smith will play a techno-phobic cop, investigating a crime potentially committed by robots. The films plot and storyline is based upon a collection of stories written by sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov. From what we can tell, the vehicle you will see here is a highly-modified Audi TT. Blistered front and rear fenders cover domed wheels on the futuristic machine, while a restructured front and rear end disguise the vehicles origins. Theres no doubt where the inspiration for the films design came from: the recent Lamborghini Gallardo-based Le Mans.

Other vehicles, such as taxis and police cars will use heavily modified versions of current Audi products, in particular A6s, TTs and more A2s. The A2, while known throughout Europe as the "Condensed Audi," has never been introduced formally to the North American public. As Audis entry-level vehicle, it shows that the brand doesnt only apply high-end technology to its performance and luxury automobiles. The little Audi features an authentic ASF aluminum space frame and impressive turbodiesel technology. It is one of the three vehicles, which Volkswagen-Audi Group (VAG) has equipped with the famed 3L engine.

In case youve never seen these particular street scenes pictured, in Chicago, you dont have to clean your glasses. As is often the case, I, Robot is currently being filmed north of the 49th parallel in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Expect to see it in theaters mid-2004.