Spielberg Eyes Anne Hathaway And Ben Whishaw To Star In ‘Robocopalypse’

Posted Wednesday, September 26th, 2012 12:00 pm GMT -4 by 0
Anne Hathaway and Ben Whishaw

Anne Hathaway and Ben Whishaw

When Steven Spielberg makes a movie, he certainly goes all out if the proposed cast list for ‘Robocopalyspe’ is anything to go by. A couple months ago, it was reported that Spielberg wanted the God of Thunder, ‘Thor’s’ Chris Hemsworth, to be the leading man in the film. Now it looks like he’s also eyeing Anne Hathaway and Ben Whishaw to add to the film.

Hathaway is definitely an A-lister having coming off the film ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ as the intelligent and sexy Selena Kyle/Catwoman. She will be seen next as Fatine in the upcoming musical ‘Les Misérables’ due out in December. According to reports, Hathaway is in talks for the female lead in ‘Robocopalypse’ opposite Hemsworth who is also reported as still in negotiations.

The other person on Speilberg’s radar for a part is Ben Whishaw. While not an A-lister yet, his star is definitely on the rise having starred in the BBC series ‘The Hour’ and most recently played 6 roles in the ambitious Wachowski film ‘Cloud Atlas’ which will be released next month. Add snagging the role of ‘Q’ in the new James Bond film ‘Skyfall’ and you have a star in the making.

Speilberg has Whishaw on the top of his list to play the role of computer hacker Luker. As in the case of Hathaway and Hemsworth, no formal offer has been made to Whishaw yet.

‘Robocopalypse’ is based on the book by Daniel H. Wilson and takes place in the near future where robots have become a part of everyday life. When an artificial intelligence known as ‘Archos’ comes online, it assumes control over the global network of machines and humanity is threatened. Here’s a full synopsis of the book from Amazon:

They are in your house. They are in your car. They are in the skies…Now they’re coming for you.

In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.

When the Robot War ignites — at a moment known later as Zero Hour — humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united.

Dreamworks has been developing this project since 2009 when it first acquired the rights to Wilson’s then un-published manuscript. Drew Goddard (‘Cabin in the Woods‘, ‘Cloverfield’, ‘Lost’) has adapted the book for the big screen.

While it is still up in the air if Hemsworth, Hathaway or Whishaw will actually star in the film, it is unlikely they would turn down the opportunity unless there was a really good reason (which, at the moment, none comes to mind).

‘Robopocalypse’ is scheduled to begin sometime next year with a release date slated for April 25, 2014.

Source: THR, Variety

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  • http://anziulewicz.livejournal.com PolishBear

    “Robopocalypse” author Daniel Wilson’s background is in robotics, and presumably he knows quite a bit about machine intelligence. So while the subject matter in “Robopocalypse” has been covered countless times in sci-fi books and movies (“Colossus: The Forbin Project” and the malevolent Skynet in the “Terminator” movies come to mind), Wilson gives it his own cutting-edge spin. I’m not a fast reader, and I finished this book in two days. It’s a page-turner, no doubt about that. And 100 or so pages into the book, when “Zero Hour” occurs and our digital infrastructure goes haywire, it’s pretty gripping.

    But far too often Wilson’s writing style had me literally rolling my eyes. Short chapters bounce around between about half a dozen major characters who sometimes tell their stories in the form of testimonies and transcripts. Problem is, whether these characters are adolescent girls, fast food employees, or robots themselves, their descriptions sound more like narrative than they do realistically depicted people. THAT can be pretty annoying.

    While the story itself isn’t bad, the real-world implications of a robotic uprising are given short shrift. Billions of people die, but the disposal of their remains is only hinted at, and why would robots care anyway if they aren’t affected by disease and smell? “Smart” vehicles spend lots of time hunting down hapless humans without ever having to stop at the gas station to fill up, and one wonders how the production and distribution of gasoline is still going on.

    The book jacket notes for this novel claim that “Daniel H. Wilson has crafted a commercial masterpiece.” I’ve never heard a book described this way. As science fiction it is terribly derivative and superficial. As literature it is amateurish and cliché-ridden. But if by “commercial masterpiece” this book makes the author comfortably wealthy and is tailor-made for a Spielberg-produced, feel-good summer blockbuster movie, I guess it will probably succeed.