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Robot Bastard Review #1
Robot Bastard Review #2

Death, Claymation, Hot-Chicks and mega-violence. 

"The future is a cooler place than you might imagine," says Robot Bastard! filmmaker Rob Schrab. Find out why Squedge agrees with him in our first review of Robot Bastard!

Rob Schrab's Robot Bastard! movie made its debut late Halloween night bowing as online film. The film can be downloaded directly from the official RobotBastard.com site in formats ranging from a whopping 43.3 MB to a super-colossal 83.8 MB, high-quality version. Bear in mind that this is the actual movie, and not a trailer.

The website itself is packed with extras. Recent additions to the site include Schrab's sketchbook, downloadable MP3's from the soundtrack, a behind the scenes of the film's audio production and the movie DinoWars made in stop-motion animation by an 8 year old Schrab.

Fans who are eagerly anticipating the online release of Rob Schrab's short film Robot Bastard can tune their web browsers to RobotBastard.com for another sneak peak. 

In addition to last month's trailers for the film, Schrab has now added a ton of production photos from the low-budget shoot. He's also provided a handful of concept design sketches.

The complete Robot Bastard movie is expected to appear online later this month.

Fans can also find Schrab's work in the current theatrical release Zoolander. Schrab directed the bizzaro, partially-animated sequence in which Ben Stiller's character attends a mysterious spa.

Rob Schrab dreams of making a balls-to-the-wall, action-packed, sci-fi movie featuring a gun-toting robot hero. Not surprising, considering he's the creator of the indie hit comic Scud: The Disposable Assassin. What is surprising is that Schrab may have realized his dream in his low-budget, independently produced short film Robot Bastard!

Schrab threw himself into the project, writing, producing, directing and basically doing a little of everything on the $18,000 movie. "I had no idea how to do any of this stuff when I first started. I just wanted to do it so bad that I just did it. I had no idea how to do green-screens. I had no idea how to make the robot costume," Schrab told Comics2Film.

Last week, the comic-creator turned filmmaker unveiled trailers for the film at the official website: RobotBastard.com. The site is airing the conventional American trailer as well as a "Japanese" trailer that evokes the TV shows and movies that inspired it. Schrab said that he shot the movie "on Super-16 color reversal, which I believe is close to the same film that the old Ultraman TV series was filmed on. I wanted it to have a new/old look to it, kind of like, 'when was this shot?'"

Schrab told C2F that he was involved with everything in the production. However, he did have some help from talented friends. Joel Hodgson of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame helped Schrab create the robot costume from everyday materials. "I built the robot in his studio with his brother," Schrab said. "They have a experience building stuff out of garbage."

Once he finished the costume, Schrab started using the robot to recruit help on the movie, having it run around a parties to attract attention to the project. Another talented participant is Doug TenNaple, creator of Earthworm Jim. "He did stop animation. Like when the gun comes out of the robot's arm," Schrab said, referring to a scene that can be found in the online trailer. TenNaple also acts in the movie (he's the tar-zombie firing the machine gun in one of the shots).

While the images from the trailer clearly show the Rob Schrab look, fans should be aware that this is not related to Scud. "There's no connection to the two of them. Scud is a more streamlined, hyper kinetic robot where as the robot in Robot Bastard is more like a hulking, bad-ass, riveted, kick-ass robot. He's more like a Schwarzenegger rather than the Jet Li that Scud is."

Although it's a simple story filling out the 13 and a half minute movie, Schrab was clear that he wanted it to be compete. The movie does have three acts and development arcs for the characters, something the filmmaker feels is missing from many online shorts.

The film tells the story of a Robot in a futuristic universe who is sent to rescue the President's daughter who has been kidnapped by terrorists and held on a space station filled with "tar-looking monsters and zombie creatures. It's pretty much just an excuse for a guy in a robot suit to run around and shoot things," Schrab said. "It's a living comic book."

Schrab plans to have the movie posted online in October. The movie is intended to follow on the release of the upcoming feature Zoolander which Schrab did some work on. In addition to second-unit directing, he also co-directed a sequence in the movie in which Ben Stiller's character gets brainwashed. 

He also hopes to keep the site populated with behind the scenes information and Q&A from the fans. Schrab will also be working to get the movie air time on Sci-Fi Channel and the Sundance Channel. If all goes according to plan, the filmmaker will be able to develop Robot Bastard further as either a feature film or a TV series.

Of course, Schrab also would like to bring his other gun-welding robot to the big-screen. In the past Scud: The Disposable Assassin has attracted attention from the likes of Oliver Stone, Robert Zemeckis, Peyton Reed and David Goyer (it may be a tip of the hat that Goyer named a character Scud in Blade 2). But with his own directing career in development, it may be Rob Schrab who directs the Scud movie.

"What I'm hoping to do is hang on to Scud as long as I can, because I want to direct it. I've wanted to direct it from the beginning," Schrab said. "Hopefully, it would be a good second or third film. I wouldn't want it to be my first film. I'd like to be able to experiment and develop a style and also prove myself as a director to the studio guys."

If there's anything Schrab's learned from making Robot Bastard it's the joy of following your dream.

"Everyone told me, when I wrote the script and started passing it around, 'your first film is going to be the most expensive movie ever done. There's no way you can do this.' 

"I said, 'I'll figure it out as I go,'" Schrab told C2F. "Anyone who has a dream, hope of doing something like...like anything whether it's comic books or movies or dating a girl...just do it. It's fun!"