Steven Spielberg will follow up his World War I drama "War Horse" with "Robopocalypse," a Drew Goddard-scripted tentpole that will explore the fate of the human race following a robot uprising, DreamWorks announced Friday.
The film is based on the book of the same name by Daniel H. Wilson. DreamWorks acquired the rights to the author's unpublished manuscript back in November 2009. Doubleday will publish the book in June 2011.
Spielberg will begin principal photography on the project in January 2012, following the December 2011 releases of "War Horse" and "The Adventure of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn."
Disney's Touchstone will release "Robopocalypse" in 2013.
Spielberg is no stranger to robots, having directed "A.I." and exec produced the "Transformers" movies, plus "Eagle Eye" and Shawn Levy's upcoming "Real Steel."
I'm pleased to see Spielberg returning to big-budget filmmaking, but this territory seems well-covered, and "Robopocalypse" strikes me as an update on James Cameron's "Terminator" series.
