You would think that robots and virtual reality had been done to death by Hollywood, but Bruce Willis’ latest sci-fi thriller, his first major science fiction film since The Fifth Element, adds an intriguing twist to the normal clichéd storylines. Even though Willis wears a tacky blond wig, a recently released trailer looks extremely promising. Are we looking at another Blade Runner, or something as disappointing as Will Smith’s I, Robot?

The director of Surrogates, Jonathan Mostow, summed up what makes the film different in a behind the scenes documentary.

“The core idea of Surrogates,” Mostow said, "is about this technology that allows us to be in the safety and comfort of our own homes and yet experience life vicariously because a robot is doing it for us.”

In Surrogates, humans do live in the comfort and safety of their own homes and only interact through robotic bodies that serve as surrogates. Your robot self can get shot or mugged after you send it into the outside world, but you’re always safe at home.

James Francis Ginty, who plays surrogate scientist Dr. Lionel Canter, said, “We’re living pseudo lives, but the real person is at home controlling this. Essentially they’re in a world without consequences.”

People live their entire lives never meeting a real person face to face. Just as you would in a virtual reality environment, your robotic avatar can look as good or as bad as you want it to. When the murder of a college student and his surrogate leads to other murders, an FBI agent (Agent Greer played by Willis) goes to investigate. He is forced to venture out without using his surrogate for the first time and unravels a conspiracy behind the crimes.

“The true science fiction classics have always been set in alternative worlds and yet in it we recognise something in it that feels very truthful,” said Mostow. “And that’s the great power of this film.”

The Surrogates screenplay was written by Michael Ferris and John Brancato and is based on the graphic novel written by Robert Venditti and drawn by Brett Weldele. Ferris and Brancato collaborated with Mostow on the last film he directed, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The same writers also wrote Terminator Salvation. I haven’t seen Terminator Salvation yet, but Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was awful.

Surrogates is scheduled to be released 25 September 2009.

Watch the Surrogates YouTube trailer below and tell us what you think. Will Surrogates be a dud or does it have the potential to be a science fiction classic?