Last year, the reboot of the 80s classic ‘Short Circuit’ made a little progress when Dimension Films named Tim Hill (‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’) as director. At that time, Hill was also in charge of overseeing a script along with original ‘Short Circuit’ producer David Foster.

It’s taken six months, but ‘Short Circuit’ finally has a screenwriter. Dimension announced via Deadline yesterday that Matt Lieberman was on board to write. Lieberman is new to the business, having recently graduated from Disney’s writing program.

Here’s the official press release from Dimension:

DIMENSION FILMS HIRES SCRIBE MATT LIEBERMAN FOR SHORT CIRCUIT

New York, NY, February 2, 2012 – Dimension Films announced today that they have hired Matt Lieberman to pen their family film SHORT CIRCUIT.  Lieberman will work closely with already attached director Tim Hill (HOP, ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS) in the reimagining of the 80s classic.  Lieberman is a recent alumni of the Disney writers program.   Details of the new take are currently being kept under wraps.

“Dimension has had great success with the SPY KIDS family series which grossed over $500 million worldwide,” said Bob Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Company (TWC).   “We are looking for SHORT CIRCUIT to be our next family franchise and are excited to be working with Matt Lieberman and Tim Hill, who has had great International success with HOP and ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS.”

David Foster, who produced the original, is producing with Ryan E. Heppe, John Hyde and Brian Manis.

Shooting is scheduled for the end of the year with a release in Summer 2013.

The deal was negotiated for Dimension Films by Adrian Lopez, VP of Business and Legal and Matthew Signer, SVP of Production and Creative Affairs; for the filmmakers by Brad Rosenfeld at Preferred Artists and Melissa Rogal at Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman, Inc..  Lieberman is represented by Rosenfeld, Rogal and Adam Kolbrenner at Madhouse.

What do you think? Will ‘Short Circuit’ work as an updated reboot? Or is the robot-becomes-sentient tale too grounded in the 80s to work in this age of high-tech sci-fi?