Robopocalypse Author’s New Novel Has Already Scored A Movie Deal
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With his 2011 SF novel Robopocalypse, writer Daniel H. Wilson hit the big time. While it’s hardly uncommon for popular new books to get scooped up for a movie deal, Wilson’s Robopocalypse caught the eye of Steven freakin’ Spielberg, who is signed on to direct the adaptation for a 2014 release. Now Wilson has a new novel on the shelves and — surprise, surprise — it’s already landed a movie deal of its own.
Amped was released this past June, but it had actually already had the movie rights purchased way back in 2010, when Summit Entertainment picked it up before it had even sold to its eventual publisher, Doubleday. Apparently Summit let their option lapse, and now Amped has been snagged by Working Title Films, with Alex Proyas set to direct the film adaptation.
Wilson’s background is as a robotics engineer, and he’s also been a contributing editor to Popular Mechanics magazine. It should be no surprise, then, that Amped has Wilson sticking in his wheelhouse with a story about near-future conflict between nanotech-modified humans and normal humans. It should also be familiar territory for Proyas, who has previously helmed science fiction flicks Dark City, I, Robot, and Knowing. No word yet who will be writing the screenplay.
It will probably be a good long before we see the movie version of Amped, but Robopocalypse is slated to hit theaters on April 25, 2014. Thor’s Chris Hemsworth is rumored for the lead, and Anne Hathaway may be joining the project as well.
If you’re curious and haven’t read any of Wilson’s stuff yet, you can check out the first three chapters of Amped over at io9.
