By ANNA CODUTTI Scene Writer on Aug 6, 2013, at 6:30 AM Updated on 8/06 at 12:44 AM
PRAIRIE NERDS
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The fantastic novel from the Booker T. and TU grad Daniel H. Wilson was published in 2011, but even before the novel rights deal was signed, the ink was drying on the film adaptation commitment from Steven Spielberg and his Dreamworks production company.
The story seemed on a fast track to the silver screen, but the latest news of the "Robopocalypse" film was in January, when Spielberg said he needed time to come up with a different direction to take the script. He then joined another project whose vision seemed to align more closely with where Spielberg was in his post-"Lincoln" creative cycle: "American Sniper." Bradley Cooper was set to star in the film about decorated Navy SEAL Chris Kyle.
And now, nearly five months after that commitment,
Spielberg and Dreamworks are bowing out of the "Sniper" project, Deadline.com reported Monday.
The only other project Spielberg still has in the works is "Robopocalypse," as the Deadline report continued. And though the story seemed to imply the project's timeline might best be described as the not-too-distant (but not too-near) future, one can't help but hope this lull in the director's schedule affords him the opportunity needed to come up with an innovative way to tell Wilson's fantastic story of the heroes of a resistance against an apocalyptic robot uprising.
This delay gives those of you who like sci-fi action epics but haven't read the book time to check it out. My hope is that Spielberg will realize that this story is too much for a feature and work to develop it as a TV series. These characters and their stories are tightly packed into the fast-moving novel, but the nuances that make each storyline so brilliant could fill up at least a dozen 45-minute episodes when translated to the screen.
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