You can see a studio executive just looking at the word ‘Robopocalypse’ and immediately wanting to buy the rights to it without knowing what the hell it’s about. It’s a great title and it does indeed seem Dreamworks are jumping in very early, as they’re teaming up with Doubleday to acquire the book and screen rights to Daniel Wilson’s unpublished book of that name.
The Robopocalypse novel won’t be ready for publication until 2011, but Dreamworks has such faith in it that according to Variety they’re already putting the movie version on the fast track.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the book explores the fate of the human race following a robot uprising. While there’s little more news on the plot, one of the things that may have attracted the studio is that it’s likely to be a more realistic tale or robotic rampage than normal, as Wilson has a Ph.D in robotics and has spent a lot of time working on artificial intelligence. “Daniel H. Wilson’s cautionary tale of man vs. machine grabbed us from the very beginning,” said DreamWorks co-president of production Mark Sourian. “Wilson’s background in robotics and artificial intelligence grounds his story with a frightening level of realism.”
Wilson is certainly a guy who certainly known what he’s talking about, and he’s explored similar territory in the survival guides, How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion and How to Build a Robot Army: Tips on Defending Planet Earth Against Aliens, Ninjas and Zombies. The first of those was optioned for a film adaptation by Paramount.
Anything that involves robots trying to take over the world we’re a big fan of, so let’s hope Robopocalypse the film is as good as the title.