I, Robot director Alex Proyas is currently in pre-production on an adaptation of Karel Capek’s seminal 1920 play, R.U.R.

Alex Proyas, director of such movies as The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot and more besides, is currently in pre-production on a film called R.U.R, it’s been revealed. It’s based on the 1920 play of the same name originally written in 1920, and is famous for introducing the word ‘robot’ into the sci-fi lexicon.

Proyas has written the screenplay himself, and if the brief description published by Deadline is anything to go by, it’ll be at least somewhat close to Capek’s original story. Set in a future where robots are mass-produced on an island factory called Rossum’s Universal Robots, the technology has long since spread worldwide, largely replacing human labour. The robots’ proliferation leads to much debate about their use as slave labour, and a pressure group called...