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S1m0ne, also seen as Simone, is a 2002 science fiction drama film written, produced and directed by New Zealander Andrew Niccol, starring Al Pacino.
Cast
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 received from his acquaintance Hank Aleno (whom Viktor met eight years earlier) before Aleno's tragic death. 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 entire world thinking that she is a real person.
It soon becomes clear that Simone is a star, and Viktor decides not to mention that she is computer-generated. However, his scheme quickly spirals out of control as he has to try and make her have some elements of a real life too in order to maintain his story.
Getting sick of the attention she needs, and thus having to come up with the fake interviews and attend press conferences, he decides to kill her off, hoping that his regained fame would carry through without her. Having failed in his first attempt he tries again, only to get arrested for her murder.
Eventually, and with the help of his family, he decides to keep Simone "alive" and even starts a virtual family with her.
Trivia
Most of the names in the film are chosen for their link with computers. The title, when spelt "s1m0ne", represents leet speak, and includes numbers from the binary numeral 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 2001: A Space Odyssey. Viktor is clearly named after Victor Frankenstein, a story which this film could easily be likened to.
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.
External link
S1m0ne (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258153/) at the Internet Movie Database
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