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Steven Spielberg's Sci-Fi 'Robopocalypse' is Postponed Indefinitely

by Ben Pearson
January 9, 2013
Source: THR

Bad news for science fiction fans today, as THR reports Robopocalypse, Steven Spielberg's return to science fiction, has been indefinitely postponed. We were very excited about the possibility of one of the world's best directors returning to a genre we love, and even more stoked because the script (based on Daniel H. Wilson's book) was being written by The Cabin in the Woods co-writer/director Drew Goddard. But the new report states that the script wasn't quite up to snuff, so instead of rushing things forward anyway, the filmmakers are pumping the brakes and seeing what kinds of solutions they can come up with.

Spielberg spokesman Marvin Levy told THR that the project was "too important and the script is not ready, and it's too expensive to produce. It's back to the drawing board to see what is possible." Well, it's obvious that we're bummed about this update, but the silver lining is that they aren't just rushing it through production anyway and dealing with the script as an afterthought. After we experienced a string of questionable movies during the Writers Strike a few years ago, I'm hoping that everyone realizes that the story is the most important building block of a movie, and it isn't something that should be taken lightly.

The fact that the project has been postponed stings all the more because Spielberg was pretty much all set to go on this one. He had Chris Hemsworth, Anne Hathaway, and Ben Whishaw in talks to join the cast, and a story that he called a "global war between man and machine." Plus, he was even toying with the idea of shooting in IMAX 3D for the first time in his career, so we're definitely sad to see this one take a back seat. Let's just hope they can figure out the script issues quickly and get this one geared up again soon. Robopocalpyse previously had a release date of April 25th, 2014, and we'll keep you posted.

Filed under Development, Movie News

From around the web:

Emdub52

He had the same issue with LINCOLN. Even DDL passed on it a couple of times because of the script. SS will do this right. He'll get a script that is perfect for what he wants to do and everything else will fall into place as it should with a Spielberg flick.
David Banner

"...indefinitely postponed", two words I didn't expect to hear about this project.
Big Boss

I call BS. If the script was bad, then REWRITE it. And since when did Steven had a problem with a budgeting? Then his spokesman deems the project "too important", but in the SAME breath, it isn't a high priority for Spielberg to move forward with. Projects go through stuff like that all the time, (World War Z, GI Joe: Retaliation) but you don't see them postponed. Bottom line, I think Steve bailed. And when you think about the story, it's basically "Ai meets Terminator" anyways. Just my two cents..
ALex

Whatever. I was never that excited about this project anyways.
http://youtube.com/flavoredshampoo Matt

So... Did everyone forget these words: "script wasn't quite up to snuff" when he was making Indy 4?
BinaryChaos

eh, that doesn't bother me I can see War Of The Worlds trainwreck happening with this one too. If there is some narration involving Morgan Freeman then I'm definitely out.
dmappin

Is his long ago proposed remake of "When Worlds Collide" still going to be made? I want to see this book done right soooooo badly!
Chris Batty

Thank you, baby Jesus.
http://thesolarsentinel.blogspot.com/ Alan Trehern

Spielberg looks pretty nervous with that book floating next to him... A return to POLTERGEIST perhaps??