It’s been a couple of years since we first learned that Roland Emmerich would direct a 3D movie adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, one of the most acclaimed science-fiction works of all time. While that project still seems to be progressing somewhat slowly (last we heard, the script was still in development and a greenlight would heavily depend on the budget), another Isaac Asimov story is gearing up for a live action feature film of its own. According to Deadline, 20th Century Fox has acquired the rights to the 1954 novel The Caves of Steel, and they have set Henry Hobson to direct. Fox previously turned Asimov’s I, Robot into a Will Smith blockbuster, and as it turns out, The Caves of Steel is about robots as well.

While The Caves of Steel is the first in Asimov’s so-called “Robot series”, it is not directly tied to the I, Robot short stories. The novel takes place thousands of years later in a future where hyperspace travel has been invented and humans have colonized fifty nearby planets known as the “Spacer worlds”. It is, however, another sci-fi murder mystery, opening with a pro-robot Spacer Ambassador being assassinated. Detective Elijah Baley is assigned to the case, along with his robot partner R. Daneel Olivaw.

Henry Hobson currently has no directorial credits to his name, and is best known as a graphic designer who worked on title sequences for such films as Sherlock Holmes, Rango and Fright Night. He is in pre-production on his first movie right now, a found footage zombie thriller called Maggie, about a 16-year-old girl who becomes infected but continues to live with her family. That project was written by John Scott III, who will also reteam with Hobson for The Caves of Steel. Do you think this will make for a decent movie? Will it be better or worse than Roland Emmerich’s Foundation?