‘Robert & Frank’ director enjoying movie rollout

Frank Langella stars in “Robot & Frank,” which opens in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The film has been gaining a following in the past three weeks.

Schreier’s directorial debut – “Robot & Frank” – has been slowly rolling out across the country since mid-August.

The film will begin with showtimes in the Duke City and Santa Fe on Friday, Sept. 7.

“I’m happy with how audiences have been reacting to the film,” he says during a recent phone interview. “We’ve slowly been rolling out the film and it’s beginning to gain some buzz around it and I couldn’t be happier.”

“Robot & Frank” tells the story of a retired jewel thief – played by Frank Langella – whose worrywart son – played by James Marsden – supplies him with a robot caregiver (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard). Frank begins to explore the robot’s abilities in lock-picking and safecracking, and the movie sweetly deals with his affection for the local librarian – played by Susan Sarandon. The film takes a realistic look at what our future holds in store for the senior citizens of tomorrow.

Schreier recently screened the film at the 38th American Film Festival in Deauville, Normandy, France.

“Taking the film internationally has been a great thing for me,” he says. “It’s been a dream to get the film seen by as many people and it’s all coming together.”

Schreier says the film originally started out as a short film about four years ago.

He worked with writer Christopher D. Ford in college on the film and the two decided a couple years ago to make a feature film.

U.S director Jake Schreier poses during the photo call of the movie ‘Robot and Frank’ at the 38th American Film Festival in Deauville, Normandy, France on Sept. 1.

“In the original script, Frank was not a burglar,” he recalls. “A lot of the work fell on Chris because he had to develop all of the characters more, as well as write a storyline that would hold up for 90 minutes.”

Schreier says the story came from Ford reading about robots that were being used to help elderly people in Japan and how society was reacting to this technology.

He says that the story is told from Frank’s perspective.

“With all of this technology, there is an incursion on the life that he has come to know,” he says. “We tried to set up the younger actors – his daughter, son – to be the antagonists in the film. There were debates among the characters, but ultimately the story and viewpoint is from Frank.”

While “Robot & Frank” hints towards the future, Schreier says there is really no time element in the movie.

“This could be taking place in the near future,” he says. “Or it could be 30 years from now. We wanted to build the movie without a time element but it’s all remains really modern.”

The film was shot over the course of 20 days in upstate New York. While the movie takes place in the future, Schreier and company didn’t create a world that was cartoonish.

“If you go to one of the towns that we filmed in, you can see that it was once a rural town but now is a vacation spot,” he says. “There are layers of history that you can see and it was important for us to capture that as well. It’s important to add that type of texture to the film. I think by adding that, you are able to connect with the characters and film more. Some of the history brings back nostalgic feelings and audiences can relate.”

With his directorial debut, Schreier came into the movie with a little bit of nerves.

He says working with the dynamic cast was overwhelming but he had to control it all.

“Being the director, if you think too much about the tasks and those you have to work with, it can consume you,” he says. “Ultimately, I was there to guide the project forward and create a vision that went along with the story. There were times I was in awe of the cast. Working with Susan and Frank, they’ve been around for a long time and are experts. It also really helped because all of the actors are veterans. We didn’t have to shoot very many takes. Frank was nailing takes on his third shot. So there was definitely a plus to having a great and experienced cast.”

Schreier says there may be one day when we do have robots taking care of humans.

He said there are animatronics that are being used to help people with Alzheimer’s Disease.

“There are so many opportunities that can come from technology,” he says. “The film is a take on what exactly could exist one day.”

‘Robot & Frank’
Jake Schreier’s directorial debut opens Friday, Sept. 7 at Century 14 Downtown in Albuquerque and at UA DeVargas Mall Cinema 6 in Santa Fe.