Steven Spielberg is well-known for taking a lot of time with many of his projects and ROBOPOCALYPSE is clearly no exception. We have been hearing about the movie, anxiously waiting for it to come to fruition for years. The adaptation of the Daniel H. Wilson sci-fi novel at one point had Chris Hemsworth set to star with Anne Hathaway and Ben Whishaw. Drew Goddard was even writing the screenplay until spring of 2013 when Spielberg put it all on hold saying “We found that the film was costing a lot of money and I found a better way to tell the story more economically but also much more personally.”
So where does it stand now? Speaking with Den of Geek Wilson gave an update on the project:
"It’s basically in the queue as far as I know. You know, Spielberg has other movies that he’s directing right now. But Robopocalypse has certainly been worked on. I’m sure that Dreamworks is still very excited about it. That’s what all indications are. It’s just about being patient, you know? I think one of the films on Spielberg’s slate is The BFG, and that’s been floating around for about ten years! I don’t really know what a timeline is, but that’s certainly normal. So I’m just being patient and working on all my projects. It would be some wonderful bonus points if that ever comes together."
It doesn’t sound like the movie is dead yet, so there’s a silver lining. The outcome of all this if I was a betting man would be that Spielberg will hand this project off to someone else. He has a lot on his plate right now with a Cold War thriller starring Tom Hanks then his adaptation of the Roald Dahl story THE BFG next spring. If we’re waiting on Spielberg, we’re waiting for a few more years; I think I read that on a t-shirt somewhere.
Here is the novels synopsis:
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.
If he was to hand over directing duties, who would you like to see pick up ROBOPOCALYPSE?
Check out some storyboards for the postponed movie.