Ben Whishaw In Line For Steven Spielberg’s ‘Robopocalypse’

By Germain Lussier/Sept. 25, 2012 2:16 pm EST

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Variety broke the news of Whishaw’s likely casting, saying that “he has been at the top of DreamWorks’ list since the casting process began.”

Spielberg is currently finishing Lincoln while simultaneously doing pre-production on this aimed at an early 2013 start date. The film was originally scheduled to hit later in the year but was eventually given a more realistic release date of April 25, 2014.

Not far into our future, the dazzling technology that runs our world turns against us. Controlled by a childlike—yet massively powerful—artificial intelligence known as Archos, the global network of machines on which our world has grown dependent suddenly becomes an implacable, deadly foe. At Zero Hour—the moment the robots attack—the human race is almost annihilated, but as its scattered remnants regroup, humanity for the first time unites in a determined effort to fight back. This is the oral history of that conflict, told by an international cast of survivors who experienced this long and bloody confrontation with the machines. Brilliantly conceived and amazingly detailed, Robopocalypse is an action-packed epic with chilling implications about the real technology that surrounds us.

While Whishaw is a name and face film fans have recognized for sometime, 2012 will truly be his coming out party and landing a Steven Spielberg summer blockbuster is a pretty nice next step. Do you think he’ll be good as the hacker Lurker?