What happens when one of Hollywood’s biggest directors decided to take one of your books and adapt it to a feature film? Your books become a hot ticket item for movie studios! It worked for Michael Crichton (‘Jurassic Park’, ‘The Andromeda Strain’) and Stephanie Meyer (‘The Twilight Saga,’ ‘The Host’) and now it looks like it’s working for Daniel Wilson (‘Robocopalypse’).

It’s being reported that Working Title is now finalizing a deal to develop Wilson’s novel, ‘Amped,’ as a feature film.

The project originally was set up at Summit Entertainment back in 2010 when they optioned the rights before the book was even published. But when Summit and Lionsgate merged, the former let the film rights lapse thus allowing it to be available for Working Title to grab.

Set in the near future, ‘Amped, takes place in a world where nanotech-enhanced people are at war with ordinary humans. Here’s an official synopsis about the book from Amazon:

In Amped, people are implanted with a device that makes them capable of superhuman feats. The powerful technology has profound consequences for society, and soon a set of laws is passed that restricts the abilities—and rights—of “amplified” humans. On the day that the Supreme Court passes the first of these laws, twenty-nine-year-old Owen Gray joins the ranks of a new persecuted underclass known as “amps.” Owen is forced to go on the run, desperate to reach an outpost in Oklahoma where, it is rumored, a group of the most enhanced amps may be about to change the world—or destroy it.

What makes Wilson’s novels so interesting is that the author is also a robotics engineer and was a contributing editor for the magazine ‘Popular Mechanics’ where he earned the nickname “Resident Roboticist.”  There’s a sense of reality in his writing which leans toward a more science aspect than fiction in his books which seems to make it appealing for sci-fi book readers.

Alex Proyas (‘The Crow,’ ‘Dark City,’ ‘I, Robot’) has been said to be helming the project but as to when it may start up production, it is unknown. Proyas does have a quite a few other projects on his plate including adapting the graphic novel ‘Joe Golem and the Drowning City’ into a feature and directing the ABC sci-fi pilot, ‘Evolve.’

No word as to who will scribe the screenplay but once we hear, we’ll let you know!

 

Source: THR