Though he’s opted to put aside his destructive tendencies for Shakespeare-focused authorial conspiracy drama Anonymous, it didn’t take long for Roland Emmerich to start hankering after a bigger scale and – likely – more chaos. He’s recently been courted to direct the adaptation of video game classic Asteroids, but now he’s also set up an intriguing new project at Sony called Singularity.
It’s strictly a working title for now, and could change if Roland Joffe gets his similarly-named time-spanning drama up and running first.Both Sony and the director are staying coy on any real details, with Deadline only able to ferret out that it’s science fiction, appears to be pitched at blockbuster/tent pole scale and will feature a script co-written by Emmerich and 2012’s Harald Kloser.
So though they’re naturally being evasive at this early stage, the way is clear for us to indulge in a little hit-the-dictionary plot prediction!
The most obvious definition of the term is the posh science term for a black hole, or “a hypothetical point in space-time at which matter is infinitely compressed to infinitesimal volume.” Could Emmerich be coming up with a way to destroy not only the Earth but lots of other planets and stars too? We can almost hear the review headline writers clapping their hands with glee at the possible chance to write "It really sucks!” (which technically black holes don't precisely do).
But singularity can also refer to the point in time in which technological intelligence finally supersedes that of its human creators. Maybe he’s thinking about a tech menace to society?
We’ll find out soon enough: though he’s got other projects swimming about, including his long-planned take on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, part of Sony’s deal for the pitch includes a planned US release date of May 17, 2013. Which means he’ll be getting to work on it sooner rather than later.
Before any of that, Anonymous will arrive on September 28.