Zelda Williams Reveals Her Favorite Robin Williams Movie

Zelda Williams, Robin Williams’ daughter, spoke exclusively to ComicBook.com about her newly-directed film, Lisa Frankenstein, which is set to be released on Feb. 9. During the chat, Zelda was asked about which of her father’s movies is her favorite. Zelda says it’s 1988’s What Dreams May Come, a fantasy drama that chronicles Williams’ character visiting heaven, because it reminds her the most of her beloved dad. Writer Diablo Cody knew immediately what Zelda was going to answer, and stepped up to fill in the blank when she was searching for an answer. 

“I mean, some of them I can’t watch. But, the one that I’m fond of, that reminds me the most of him. I do say is… Oh God. What is it now? It’s gonna leave my head, of course, because I’m…” she struggled, before Cody interjected with the title. 

“What Dreams May Come!” Williams continued. “Thank you, I know it’s the one that was like, it doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as easily. But, I’m also a big Richard Matheson fan. So, that one for me ticks a lot of boxes. But, it reminds me the most of him, I would say.”

The film, which also starred Cuba Gooding Jr., was adapted from the 1978 novel of the same title by Richard Matheson. What Dreams May Come won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but didn’t fare the best at the box office and made less money than what the film cost to make. 

The visual effects were considered unprecedented, but the film received mixed reviews. In a 1988 review by The Washington Post, Michael O’Sullivan wrote: “Although both movies deal with a dead man’s attempt to reunite with his wife, the weighty Dreams, which addresses deeper philosophical, psychological and moral issues, is the talkier and infinitely more depressing of the two. And ironically, that’s exactly what I liked about the movie. What I didn’t like was the forced sugariness that suffused the bitter tang of its dark brew of ideas.”