Steven Spielberg has committed to next direct Robopocalypse, a Drew Goddard-scripted adaptation of the Daniel H. Wilson epic novel about the human race's attempt to survive an apocalyptic robot uprising.
He will direct this after finishing the post-production works on Tintin and War Horse, both slated for releases in December 2011.
The book summary and title both suggest this might be Steven Spielberg's entrance into the "cyberpunk" genre, which achieved its popularity in the 1980s &90s with The Terminator franchise, RoboCop, Total Recall, Twelve Monkeys, The Matrix, among others.
Yes the premise is nothing special and had been made into movies countless times before (even the title Robopocalypse sounds way too familiar), but who knows what a director in the caliber of Spielberg could do with this material?
(I cannot stop thinking about how brilliant and underappreciated A.I. Artificial Intelligence is every time I think of Steven Spielberg, it is one of if not the most fascinating and philosophically profound Sci-Fi film in the last 20 years. Distractors mainly hated the so called "happy ending" and its seemingly clichéd premise (robot boy longing for true love), without realizing this is the most narratively unconventional and ambitious film Spielberg has ever made. Forget about Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan, A.I. will be remembered as his best film many decades later.)
Spielberg will work on the Lincoln biopic after this, might take another 2-3 years. Movie projects get pushed back all the time. There's no reason to rush Interstellar, it will definitely come out before 2020 at the latest, which gives them more time to revise the script, find the right cast, and wait for filmmaking technology to catch up.
For those wondering Interstellar is currently on hold according to Production Weekly.
