The Caves of Steel movie planned

Darkday

Darkday

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20th Century Fox Sets Isaac Asimov’s ‘The Caves Of Steel,’ Henry Hobson To Direct

EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Fox, which tapped into Isaac Asimov’s futuristic robot science fiction for I, Robot, is now working on a live-action adaptation of Asimov’s The Caves of Steel. The studio has set Henry Hobson to direct and John Scott 3 to adapt the murder mystery that was first published as a book in 1954. The director and writer are currently in pre-production on Maggie, a spec script that tracks the six-week metamorphosis of a 16-year-old girl into a zombie after she becomes infected and continues to live with her family. Trained at the Royal College of Art in London as a graphic designer, Hobson specializes in creating inventive title sequences for films that included Sherlock Holmes for Prologue Films. The scribe seems well suited to adapt Asimov’s visionary prose. When not writing scripts, Scott builds command systems for NASA’s flagship X-ray satellite. He works with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which takes photos of X-ray photons in deep space.

The Caves of Steel will be produced by Simon Kinberg, the X-Men scribe whose Genre Films banner is based at the studio and who is right now producing the Neill Blomkamp-directed Elysium, which stars Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley. Similar to I, Robot (which Fox turned into a hit film with Will Smith), The Caves of Steel is a murder mystery that takes place 1,000 years in the future, on an overpopulated Earth where there is a phobia about robots. The title refers to giant city complexes that are necessary because Earth is so overpopulated. While robots are used for labor in outlying “spacer worlds” where the rich live on spacious parcels, the robots are outlawed on Earth. A Spacer Ambassador lobbying to loosen Earth’s anti-robot restrictions is found dead, his chest imploded by an energy blaster, and a detective is matched with a human-looking robot to solve the crime. Hobson is repped by CAA and Energy Entertainment.
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Source: deadline.com
 
Interesting; it's a great story but is somewhat dated, as was I Robot I suppose, so just as with I Robot I suspect it will get a pretty significant makeover, which is not always for the best.
 
I love this novel so I'm very interested to see if they can get it done well. I didn't like I,robot mainly because it was nothing like the book and nothing like how I'd imagine.
I would like to know who they'd get to be Elijah and Daneel, I love that duo so I'd be interested to see who they get to play them.
I'll have to keep an eye on this project.
 
Me too!

I did like I Robot - even though I knew it had little, apart from the title, directly from Asimov. Oh, possibly "Little Lost Robot" came into the story as well and Susan Calvin, though she also didn't quite match my picture of her.

Elijah Bailey and Daneel - hmmm - Harrison Ford and Leonardo DiCaprio?

Any other suggestions?
 
I would love to see one of Asimov's stories done well. As for Elijah and Daneel - hmmm - I would consider John Lithgow and Gordon Joseph-Levitt. (I've been rewatching 3rd Rock recently).
 
I would agree with Highlander as far as Harrison Ford for Elijah - that kind of weather worn look Harrison Ford has presented in most of his later films is exactly how I picture Elijah.

For Daneel I think (I hardly believe I'm saying this) Brad Pitt could do him really well. Did anyone see Pitt in Meet Joe Black with Anthony Hopkins. I think that would be a great way to play Daneel.
 
When I was reading The Caves of Steel I always imagined Elijah a little younger than stated. I kind of imagined a American Clive Owen, something more like him in Children of Men only American... so some one whose like that would be nice :p
Daneel has to be 'perfect' looking, some one who is completely and utterly the most attractive man ever, so much that he doesn't seem real. I know Daneel was modelled after his creator, but I just saw him that way when I was reading it. I have no idea who could play Daneel so cool and calm but with a certain charm.... but if you find him would you mind giving me their number? ;)
 
I like the idea of Clive Owen for Elijah, it really fits well . . . .

I agree with Vertigo that Daneel needs to be played in a 'Meet Joe Black' but Brad Pitt? Not a chance. I am probably going to get slated for this and I dislike him as much as the next man; but Keeanu Reeves wouldn't be a bad shout . . . . and if he was still with us I think Heath Ledger would have excelled in the roll.
 
If he were still around, heath Ledger could have played either, or both parts. I can see why people would want Ford as Bailey, after all he played a future cop in Blade Runner too. I think there'd need to be actor more in thirties. possible look like higher mileage, but not sixties where Harrison Ford is now. Christian Bale or Gerard Butler might be able to pull it off, Karl Urban definitely could. as far as Daneel goes, Similar age, a bit younger, and not look so worn out. Tate Donovan could have been prime example, about fifteen years ago, Don't know if he could pull the part off. Paul Bettany could be a good choice,
 
Remember that Elijah is not that old - he's, what, in his early thirties in the book? I think Ford would be way to old now. He has to leap on and off those high speed "travelators", you'll recall. Can't recall exactly what Asimov called them.

It needs to be really gritty, and film-noir in style, with Daneel looking like he's too clean for it all, I think. I think someone like Martin Freeman would be good for Elijah. Not sure for Daneel.
 
don't remember the name of them off the top of head either, but thinking slidewalks, maybe, or transit strips. I do recall the 60 MPH was express ways with passenger cars... possibly time for a reread.

okay, started a read, Lije is 42, and the pedestrian traffic went on expressways. moving sidewalks., acceleration and deceleration strips to the side of the expressway itself.
 
Clive Owen seems to be the perfect actor to play Lije: rugged, mid-aged, lean and dryly humerous. My hopeful for Daneel will have to be either Jude Law or Leonardo Di Caprio.
Also, I know it won't ever materialize, but shouldn't Chris Nolan be the natural choice for the directorial reins? He has handled sci-fi deftly in the past (Inception, The Prestige) and has the professional ability to bring to life Asimov's rich text to life.
 
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bharatmisr said:
Clive Owen seems to be the perfect actor to play Lije: rugged, mid-aged, lean and dryly humerous. My hopeful for Daneel will have to be either Jude Law or Leonardo Di Caprio.
Also, I know it won't ever materialize, but shouldn't Chris Nolan be the natural choice for the directorial reins? He has handled sci-fi deftly in the past (Inception, The Prestige) and has the professional ability to bring to life Asimov's rich text to life.
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I like the idea of Owens as Elijah: he was pretty much excellent in SinCity a few years back; but my own concern is whether he is well known enough to carry a film like this
 
HanaBi said:
I like the idea of Owens as Elijah: he was pretty much excellent in SinCity a few years back; but my own concern is whether he is well known enough to carry a film like this
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Owen seems to have the majority of his parts as a similar character. Yeah I could see him as Lije, just from remembering the part he got to play in a 90's video game Privateer 2

Still not sure who could play Daneel, or for that matter who might take on some of the secondary etc... roles.

Or is there a possibility of it being animated, then just have fun of voice acting instead?
 
^^ The article says live-action adaptation, so my guess is no animation. They easily have the technology to make everything in the book. I think the robot part will be easier than the world itself.

The information in the original post is a year old, does anybody know of anything more current? This is the first ive seen of this and I cant wait to finally see an Asimov movie adaptaton that isnt I, Robot (which frankly wasnt an Asimov adaptation).
 
I think Caves of Steel will make a great movie, providing its made by a great movie maker.

I don't see it as an action film per se with lots of chases and explosions - its a more cerebral book than that, but I doubt Hollywood will have the balls to make it as a crime thriller (and not an action movie) which is what it is.

I'd like to see Hugh Lawrie play the part of Elijah (but without the tiresome American accent - a simple mid-atlantic twang would be enough), and there's an actor in the Direct Line adverts here in the UK who has a strangely smooth and expressionless face - Darren Boyd - he would be ideal for R Daneel!
 
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Do you know what I found reading this book, elements of this book made me think about the movie I, Robot. The thing is, Asimov's vision of a world with 8 billion people, and that if the yeast farms were shut down, 6 billion would die within a year, and those figures just show you just how old this book was written. We already have over 6 billion people living on this planet, and we don't live in caves of steel, we don't have robots, we don't have space colonization. I think it would be amazing to time capsule this book, till the day and age when we do live in caves of steel, do have colonization of space, and have robots, and just take a look at the number of people living on Earth, because I think that given todays usage of this planet, that number could go up over 50 billion long before we ever get close to the vision of this book.

So, then how do you make a movie ignoring these numbers which are clearly a sign of the times of when the book was written, and these figures are just so off. Also, Hollywood will hate the way the book ends, the ending was not very good, and didn't tie characters off. Overall, I don't think it's the greatest book to turn into a movie, without huge work on how exactly you'd possibly do a lot of what is in it. The scenes of the expressway, and the strips.
 
I have to agree that this is not a particularly good book to make into a film. (The pilot for a series, as was once bruited about, it another thing.) The problems you point out can mostly be taken care of by not being slavishly literal, but even the thrust of the story simply wouldn't work well on the screen as a solo piece.

As to what can be done to remain true to the spirit (and much of the letter) of Asimov's work while still updating many of the concepts and characters, take a look at Harlan Ellison's screenplay for I, Robot... which is an entirely different sort of thing from what Hollywood finally went with....
 
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