Given that 20th Century Fox found solid success with I, Robot a few years ago and has also seen science fiction provide a healthy windfall via Avatar, it’s not surprising that the studio would be looking to make more of it. So combining the source of one with the large-scale ambition of the other would seem to make sense, and Fox is now moving forward on an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel.
Steel was original published by Asimov in 1954 and is set 1,000 years in the future. Naturally, Earth has become an overcrowded mess and many humans live in the constructed, titular city complexes. This being Asimov, there are robots around, but mankind has become suspicious of their metallic brethren and the machines are illegal on Earth. Rich types colonising other worlds have no such fears and an ambassador from one of the “spacer” planets arrives on Earth to try to convince the rest of us to relax the restrictions. And gets killed… Cue an investigation that sees a detective partnered with a humanoid ‘bot!
With Fox favourite Simon Kinberg overseeing things as producer, the studio is trusting this one to first-time director Henry Hobson, usually to be found crafting titles and credit for movies. He’s getting set to make Maggie, the tale of a teenager who turns into a zombie across six weeks while still living with her family. That film sees him working alongside satellite engineer-turned-writer John Scott, who will also write the Asimov adaptation.