Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel is heading up The Inquest Of Pilot Pirx – a new film adaptation of a Stanislaw Lem story.

Perhaps best known for his World War II drama Downfall, director Oliver Hirschbiegel is set to make a new sci-fi film based on a short story by Polish author Stanislaw Lem.

First announced last year, The Inquest Of Pilot Pirx is based on Lem’s short story The Inquest, originally published in 1968. Its lengthier title comes from an earlier 1979 Polish adaptation (pictured), also based on the same tale. It tells the story of a routine repair mission to one of Saturn’s rings that has a fascinating additional purpose.

The ship’s crew, led by one Commander Pirx, is a mixture of humans and androids. What follows is essentially a Turing Test in space – if the androids prove to be indistinguishable from humans, then the company that makes them will put them into production.