A legacy from the director𠏋 late friend Stanley Kubrick, this sci-fi heart-tugger is sure to take its place in the unbroken line of Spielbergian summer blockbusters. 孏here is good reason for the comparisons to E.T. and Close Encounters,?producer Kathleen Kennedy says, 弌nd, in Kubrick𠏋 work, to 2001鍟his movie does combine a lot of those sensibilities.?

Nowhere near as dark as the 1969 short story that first inspired Kubrick, A.I. stars Osment as a boy robot (one with 弌rtificial intelligence,? which allows him to feel as well as think) who is forcefully separated from his mother and father (O𣚦onnor and Robards). Among the film𠏋 spectacles is a flooded world (extensive work was done in conceiving how New York City would look underwater, and Industrial Light + Magic𠏋 Dennis Muren has been working overtime on effects shots and computer simulations).

But the real story, Kennedy says, is in the spiritual questions underlying the boy robot𠏋 quest for humanness. 𨧻 think [the movie] paints a picture of the future that deals, on an emotional level, with questions people are worried about,?she says.

The Bottom Line: It wasn㦙 all work and no play during the shoot. 鐈e has such a sense of joy,?O𣚦onnor says of Spielberg. 𨧻t𠏋 like a big playground for him.? Literally, sometimes: Osment says he and the director bonded over their gamesmanship. 孏here was a video game system in the craft service trailer,?the young actor says with a laugh. Predicted Score: $195 million

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