Unlike Philip K. Dick, who has adaptations on his resume like Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report, Isaac Asimov hasn't had the greatest luck when it comes to adaptations of his work. Despite being one of the greatest science-fiction writers of all time and a brilliant mind, the most notable film versions of his writings are Alex Proyas' I, Robot and Nicholas Kazan's Bicentennial Man, neither of which are exactly great movies. Perhaps The Caves of Steel will finally break the trend.
Deadline reports that 20th Century Fox is now developing a live-action film based on the book and has hired Henry Hobson to direct. The script will be written by John Scott 3. The story is set 1,000 years in the future and revolves around a murder mystery in a world with serious a overpopulation problem and where robots are banned from Earth. The man found dead is an Ambassador who wants to ease the anti-robot laws. Assigned to solve the crime is a detective and a "human-looking robot." Hobson's work has largely been in the field of title design, but is also attached to direct Maggie, a film about a 16-year-old girl who is bit by a zombie and continues to live with her family over the six week period before she transforms. That script was also written by John Scott 3. The book was previously adapted as an episode of Story Parade and starred Peter Cushing and John Carson.
Is it strange that the first thing that pops into my head when I read that plot description is Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Think about it: murder mystery, detectives from two different backgrounds, and a world completely unlike our own. Still, it sounds pretty damn cool.
