Fox has hired Akiva Goldsman to adapt its sci-fi mystery “The Caves of Steel,” based on the Isaac Asimov novel, Variety has learned exclusively.
The studio set up the project in 2011 with Fox-based Simon Kinberg directing with Henry Hobson. Asimov’s story is set 1,000 years in the future when Earth has become overrun with people and robots are banned. A detective must team up with a robot to solve the murder of an ambassador who had been seeking to reform Earth’s policies on robots.
Previous drafts have been written by John Scott 3 and Jamie Vanderbilt.
“The Caves of Steel” was first published in 1953 and adapted by the BBC as a TV movie in 1964.
Goldsman is a prolific screenwriter who won an Academy Award for “A Beautiful Mind” with credits on “A Time to Kill,” “I, Robot,” “Cinderella Man,” “Batman Forever,” “Batman & Robin,” “The Da Vinci Code,” “Angels & Demons,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “The 5th Wave,” and “Winter’s Tale.” He’s also heading a team of writers and filmmakers to create new universes from Paramount-Hasbro’s “Transformers” franchise.
Kinberg hired Goldsman. They collaborated previously on “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”
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Goldsman’s producing credits through his Weed Road company include “Lone Survivor,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “I Am Legend,” and the upcoming “The Dark Tower.”
Goldsman is repped by WME.
