In his near 30-year career, Alex Proyas has only directed eight features, including “Dark City,” “The Crow” “I, Robot,” and “Knowing.” He hasn’t helmed anything since his 2016 bomb “Gods of Egypt,” which earned him the Razzie for Worst Director.
Proyas has now signed on to direct the sci-fi film “R.U.R,” set to be his first effort in over 8 years. Mallory Jansen (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D”), Anthony LaPaglia (“Lantana”) and Lindsay Farris (“Ash vs Evil Dead”) will star in the film. Production will begin on October 21 in Australia.
Proyas wrote the screenplay which is an adaptation of Karel Capek landmark sci-fi treatise, “R.U.R.” (Rossum’s Universal Robots), published in 1920. Here’s the synopsis:
R.U.R. follows Helena, played by Jansen, who visits the island factory of Rossum’s Universal Robots to emancipate the robots from capitalist exploitation, with catastrophic results.
Capek popularized the word “robot” after it was introduced in his 1920 play. By 1923, the play had been translated into over 30 languages. He went on to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times.