After a rough half-decade or so ("Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," "The Adventures of Tintin," "War Horse," failing to get "Harvey" made), Steven Spielberg is back to enjoying the kind of success he's used to; "Lincoln" is closing on $150 million domestically alone, and is likely to be the most nominated film when the Oscar nods are announced first thing tomorrow.
But things aren't all rosy in Spielberg-land, because The Hollywood Reporter are, well, reporting that "Robopocalypse," the long-gestating sci-fi blockbuster that the filmmaker was set to start filming in a few months for release in April 2014, has been postponed indefinitely. Penned by "Cabin in the Woods" writer Drew Goddard, it's based on the novel by Daniel H. Wilson about a machine uprising caused by an artificial A.I out to wipe out humanity, and had a pretty impressive cast already lined up, with Chris Hemsworth, Anne Hathaway and Ben Whishaw all signed on.
But word is from Spielberg's spokesman Marvin Levy that the film 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." Reading between the lines, it's probably another victim of the kind of nervousness that saw films like "Akira," "Paradise Lost" and "Arthur and Lancelot" cut down in pre-production. Whether "Robopocalypse" becomes as D.O.A as those, or whether it pulls a "Lone Ranger" and manages to get the budget down enough to the point where the studio are happy to pull the trigger remains to be seen.
In the meantime, that means there's some hot talent with windows in their schedules that weren't there before, and we're sure people will be queueing up to pick up Hemsworth (who, with "The Avengers 2" set for release in 2015, may not be able to be a part of the project if it does remount down the line) and Hathaway. And as for Spielberg, there was talk of him shooting Moses movie "Gods and Kings" in the spring of this year before "Robopocalypse" got pushed back the first time, so it's possible he'll step across to that. Or he could end up with something entirely different. Or maybe he'll even be persuaded to give "Star Wars Episode VII" a second look…
it's Episode VII. you heard it here first.
is it in relation with Nolan in talk to direct and produce INTERSTELLAR? Spielberg could be interested by the production
I always hoped he'd wise up and not do this one (though the casting made me a little happier at the prospect of it happening that I had been), so this is good news for me. If he wants to do an effects movie next can he please make Interstellar finally? Make it two-in-a-row for ridiculously long-gestating passion projects. Or continue Tintin. Or both.
An apocalyptic movie has been postponed? Oh darn, I was looking forward to something fresh…
With 'Robopocalypse' effectively DOA for now, Spielberg has a big open window in his schedule, and I totally concur with him doing Episode VII, he always stated he would love to helm a 'Star Wars' movie, and his involvement in the first installment of the new trilogy would certainly give it automatic cred… although it would give whomever directs Episodes VIII and IX one heckuva tall order to follow!
"Reading between the lines, it's probably another victim of the kind of nervousness that saw films like "Akira," "Paradise Lost" and "Arthur and Lancelot" cut down in pre-production." You should work on your reading-comprehension skills, then. Spielberg is far, far more powerful in Hollywood than the directors behind those other projects. He can – with a few reasonable exceptions – do whatever the hell he wants (the only project he wanted to do recently but couldn't was the Jonathan Nolan-scripted space film, which was a victim of Paramount-Dreamworks infighting). Are you seriously telling me that David Dobkin and Spielberg would face the same pressures by the studio? If Spielberg wants to push the project back, it is because he CAN, which explains why projects like Indy 4, Lincoln etc. were all put on the back-burner for more rewrites. Like Ridley Scott with 'Prometheus', you can't blame studio pressures or interference if you have problems with the final product because those directors have the power and opportunity to push projects back if they want to for more rewrites.
Stop hating Tintin. Now.