Michael Bay's days directing TRANSFORMERS movies may be over, but he's not done working with robots. After he makes an action movie titled 6 UNDERGROUND (scripted by ZOMBIELAND/DEADPOOL writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese), Bay is set to replace his TRANSFORMERS executive producer Steven Spielberg as director of the long-in-development film ROBOPOCALYPSE.
Based on a novel by Daniel H. Wilson (you can pick up a copy on Amazon), who has a PhD in Robotics and Masters degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, ROBOPOCALYPSE has been in the works with Spielberg attached to direct since mid-2010 – a year before Wilson's novel even made it to book store shelves.
The movie nearly went into production in 2012, aiming for a 2013 release date. CLOVERFIELD's Drew Goddard had written the screenplay, Chris Hemsworth and Anne Hathaway were in consideration for lead roles. Then Spielberg hit the brakes, saying a new script was going to be written because he had found a more economical and personal approach to the story. That was five years ago, and Spielberg hasn't managed to fit ROBOPOCALYPSE back into his schedule since.
So since he doesn't have time to make it, Spielberg has brought in Bay, who he hand-picked to direct TRANSFORMERS back in the day, to finally bring it to the screen.
A ROBOPOCALYPSE synopsis:
In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.
I didn't like Bay's TRANSFORMERS, so I can't say the idea of him directing ROBOPOCALYPSE is very exciting to me. If Spielberg can't do it, Bay would never have been my choice for his replacement… but he's a much bigger Bay fan than I am.
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