John Ridley, whose previous credits include winning an Oscar for his work on 12 Years a Slave, is set to direct an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s 1954 sci-fi detective novel, The Caves of Steel.
According to Deadline, Ridley has co-written a screenplay with Cheo Hodari Coker, whose credits include showrunning Netflix’s Luke Cage. The Caves of Steel is the first book in Asimov’s Robot series, and takes place in a future where Earth’s denizens live in domed cities (aka caves of steel) while others in humanity—Spacers—have colonized other planets. The novel follows New York City detective Elijah Baley, who is assigned to investigate the murder of a Spacer scientist. He’s unwillingly partnered with the robot R. Daneel Olivaw to do so, and the two become embroiled in the larger machinations between the Outer World planets and Earth that have a lot to do with Spacers embracing robot integration and Earthers’ resistance to doing so.
Deadline also reports the feature adaptation is centered on The Caves of Steel but also might “take inspiration” from Asimov’s sequels, The Naked Sun and Robots of Dawn.
This isn’t the first adaption of The Caves of Steel. BBC has done a television series adaptation, and way back in 2011, Fox—trying to leverage its success with 2004’s I, Robot adaptation starring Will Smith—had a film adaptation of the novel in development that never made it to the big screen.
This adaptation from Ridley is still in its early days, so no news yet on casting or if/when it will go into production.
