British actor Ben Whishaw has signed on to play a computer hacker named Lurker in Robopocalypse. Steven Spielberg’s next sci-fi epic is shaping up nicely, having already tapped Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises) to star as the male and female leads. The film is being written by Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods), and co-produced by Dreamworks and 20th Century Fox.
Variety reports Robopocalypse, based on the book of the same name by robotics engineer-turned-author Daniel H. Wilson, “centers on the fate of the human race after a robot uprising.”
That’s a lot of muscle for one picture, but what else can you expect from the man who brought us Saving Private Ryan and Indiana Jones?
It is no secret Steven Spielberg is at his best working in the science fiction genre. The man who staked his reputation with aliens (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial) and investigated cyborgs in A.I. Artificial Intelligence, more recently gave us the contemporary sci-fi classic Minority Report. But Robopocalypse marks the director’s first foray into the realm of science fiction since 2005’s War of the Worlds. (If you don’t count the sparkly, crystal-skulled aliens in the fourth Indiana Jones film, and it’s best you didn’t.)
Too bad we’ll have to wait until 2014 to see Robopocalypse. The late release date all but assures a lengthy post-production period for what is sure to be an effects-laden epic.
In the meantime, you can check out the casts’ other huge movies. Anne Hathaway stars as Fantine in Les Miserables this Christmas. Chris Hemsworth will juggle franchise duties as The Avengers’ Thor and as Snow White’s Huntsman. Ben Whishaw makes the leap to big-budget action in the trippy, time-travel fantasy Cloud Atlas and as the new Q to Daniel Craig’s James Bond in Skyfall.
Plenty of upcoming blockbuster movies to get you primed for Robopocalypse. My money’s on the robots.
