This last week has been somewhat of a mixed bag for Steven Spielberg. Sure there’s been a whole host of Oscar nominations, but there’s also been the collapse of his highly anticipated adaptation of Daniel H. Wilson’s novel, “Robopocalypse.” The film, penned by “Cabin in the Woods” writer Drew Goddard, had already been allotted an April 25, 2014 release date, and had a tremendous lead cast being lined up including Anne Hathaway, Chris Hemsworth and Ben Whishaw. The official line from Spielberg’s spokesman was that the film was “too important and the script not ready, and it’s too expensive to produce. It’s back to the drawing board to see what’s possible.”
We immediately wondered whether this might follow a similar path to “The Lone Ranger” and retool itself to the point where the studio would give it the go ahead, but there was always the possibility that the project was dead and that all involved were just trying to let us down gently. Well, Spielberg himself has now been speaking about “Robopocalype,” and he insists that the latter isn’t the case.
“We found that the film was costing a lot of money and I found a better way to tell the story more economically but also much more personally,” Spielberg said. “I found the personal way into Robopocalypse, and so I just told everybody to go find other jobs, I’m starting on a new script and we’ll have this movie back on its feet soon.” He went on to confirm that it’s definitely not been shunted down his to-do list and that he was working on it right now, and estimated the delay to be no more than six to eight months.
That sounds largely positive, although it does suggest that Goddard’s involvement with the script is done, and that the eventual film may have to assemble a new cast. Still, let’s hope that they can work around the delay, although it may be tough for Spielberg to find a gap for Hemsworth with “The Avengers 2” shoot coming up, and have his film take priority for Hathaway in the wake of her likely picking up a little golden man and becoming the most sought-after actress in Hollywood. Still, let’s focus on the positives – the robot uprising is still coming! [EW]
