‘I, Robot’ Filmmaker Calls Out Elon Musk After Tesla’s Optimus and Robovan Reveal: ‘Can I Have My Designs Back Please?’

Elon Musk’s Tesla event on Thursday caught the attention of many of his fans and critics when it revealed new robotic technology, including Optimus the dancing robot and the self-driving Robotaxi and Robovan. But while some were in awe, some saw some remarkable design similarities to 2004’s I, Robot movie — including the movie’s director.

Alex Proyas, the director of I, Robot, fired off a tweet politely chiding Musk for seemingly ripping off his designs:

In a tweet that was deleted, filmmaker Matt Granger — who was an assistant to Proyas on I, Robot — was less polite, saying: “I too wish to offer my full-fingered ‘fuck you’ to Elon and his utter lack of creativity.”

Proyas was not the only one who noticed that the look of the latest Tesla Bot looked a lot like the suddenly sentient humanoids in the film. Not only did Optimus look familiar, but the Robotaxi and Robovan also had a striking resemblance to the futuristic vehicles featured in the movie (keeping in mind that the “futuristic” designs are actually two decades old):

The event was titled “We, Robot,” an homage to the original 1950 I, Robot short story collection by Isaac Asimov on which the movie was based.

Watch the video above via Tesla on YouTube.