Akiva Goldsman tapped to enter The Caves of Steel

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Sci-fi nerds rejoice, for your god Isaac Asimov is about to have another one of his works adapted for the silver screen! Pop a bottle of Mountain Dew and celebrate!

Okay, that may be a little stereotypical of me. I don’t know much about fans of science fiction other than you can’t like STAR TREK and STAR WARS equally, and that Isaac Asimov is a big deal. If the latter is true, then this news is a big deal indeed.

After about five years of being in production purgatory, Asimov’s THE CAVES OF STEEL has finally landed a new screenwriter in Oscar-winner Akiva Goldsman, according to Coming Soon. I say “new” because at one point writer James Vanderbilt was set to write the movie, with Henry Hobson set to direct. But now they’re gone. Not like gone as in disappeared, just gone off the project. On second thought they could have physically evaporated. I’ll get back to you.

Anyway, STEEL is set 3,000 years in the future and tells the story about a cop and robot having to team up to solve a murder of a “Spacer” ambassador before societal tensions boil over. In the story a “Spacer” is a person who has left Earth to join another planetary colony, which I suppose is an issue that causes a lot of tension.

Goldsman won his Oscar for A BEAUTIFUL MIND, and has written other hits like CINDERELLA MAN and I AM LEGEND. Since then he’s had his hands in everything, mostly producing movies like LONE SURVIVOR, some PARANORMAL ACTIVITY sequels and JONAH HEX.

Sadly, though, his writing skills haven't produced many hits of late, as his most recent efforts include the critically-panned, box office disappointments WINTER’S TALE, THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT and THE 5TH WAVE. I may also point out all three of those are book adaptations. So maybe don’t get too excited.

But I like to hope for the best, so maybe Asimov’s material will be enough for Goldsman to prove how he got that Oscar all those years ago. The plot seems topical enough: Two completely different species (are robots a species?) having to come together to solve an international incident in order preserve the peace of the planet. On Goldman’s side, too, is the fact he wrote the last major Asimov movie, I, ROBOT which was…fine. It was fine.

There is no casting or director news on CAVES OF STEEL. Let the speculation begin!