Hot on the news that Anne Hathaway was in talks to join Steven Spielberg’s ROBOPOCALYPSE, Variety is now reporting that Ben Whishaw is close to taking the third lead role in the movie.
Whishaw would play a hacker named Lurker. He would join Hathaway and Chris Hemsworth. None of the roles are confirmed yet, but that would make one hell of a cast.
Plot: In the near future, an increasingly robot-reliant society faces extinction after a computer scientist accidentally unleashes a sentient artificial intelligence named Archos. After failed attempts at making a non-homocidal artificial intelligence, the safeguards in a computer science lab are compromised. Archos, a supremely intelligent AI, becomes self-aware and immediately starts planning the decimation of human civilization in an attempt to preserve Earth’s biodiversity. After infecting all penetrable networked electronic devices (cars, airplanes, elevators, robots, etc.) with a “precursor virus”, Archos begins planning a systematic attack on the human race.
The novel was a ton of fun and would be one of the most action-packed movies Spielberg has done in years. Imagine MINORITY REPORT crossed with I, ROBOT. Whishaw is a great actor. He got his big break in Tom Tykwer’s PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER and will soon appear in CLOUD ATLAS and as Q in Sam Mendes’ SKYFALL. He also stars on the great BBC series THE HOURS.
I have been waiting for Spielberg to get back to making popcorn movies. Yeah, LINCOLN looks good and THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN was fun, but I want to see the Spielberg of the 80s using 21st century technology. How about you guys? Is ROBOPOCALYPSE shaping up to be awesome or what?