Stephen Spielberg On Board Directing 'Robopocalypse'

A Steven Spielberg sci-fi directed epic? And it centers upon battling robots? Oh, do go on.

The man has captivated audiences across four decades with friendly aliens, initially feared but misunderstood aliens, aliens that hunt down Tom Cruise, man-eating dinosaurs, a man-eating shark and a beacon of hope and compassion amid the horrors of the holocaust.

Hmm. When you say it out loud, one of those things really sounds a trifle odd with all the others. Then again, that's the one that won him a "Best Picture" Oscar.

Now that he's most recently produced three blockbusters about titanic robots that have made Earth their battleground (which, combined, have grossed enough to buy out a small third-world nation's debt), Spielberg has apparently decided he's staying the fighting-robot course a while longer.

IGN reports that Spielberg and an alliance of Twentieth Century Fox and Dreamworks SKG will respectively direct and co-finance 20th Century Fox's coming big-screen adaptation of Daniel H. Wilson's 2009 silly-named sci-fi novel "Robopocalypse," tentatively expected to hit theaters everywhere July 3, 2013. While Twentieth Century Fox will handle the project's international distribution, Disney's Touchstone Pictures will distribute it domestically. Drew Goddard wrote the adapted screenplay.

"I am so pleased that Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos see the same exciting opportunities in 'Robopocalypse' that we originally saw when we bought the rights to the book," Spielberg said of his partners on the project.

"We had a successful relationship with them and Fox when we made 'Minority Report' and we hope we can deliver another film that will give today's global audiences something thrilling."

Naturally, the pair were similarly complimentary.

"Steven Spielberg is the master's master. He will capture the story's epic mix of thrills, scale, humanity and heart," Rothman and Gianopulos said via a released statement.

"We are truly honored to once again collaborate with such a motion picture giant, as well as with Stacey Snider and her outstanding team at DreamWorks."