
DreamWorks and Doubleday are preparing for the end of the world.
In a preemptive move, film company and publishing house have jointly acquired the rights to Daniel Wilson's unpublished manuscript "Robopocalypse."
Story explores the fate of the human race following a robot uprising.
DreamWorks, which snapped up the film rights from lit manager Justin Manask, is fast-tracking the project, while Doubleday is putting the book on the front burner, carving out a 2011 pub.
Wilson's tome will tread territory familiar to him. His previous works include the 2005 book "How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion," which was optioned by Paramount, and "How to Build a Robot Army: Tips on Defending Planet Earth Against Aliens, Ninjas and Zombies." His next book, "Bro-Jitsu: The Martial Art of Sibling Smackdown," is scheduled for release next year. "Bro-Jitsu" was optioned by Nickelodeon Movies, with Wilson tapped to pen the adaptation.
"Daniel H. Wilson's cautionary tale of man vs. machine grabbed us from the very beginning," said DreamWorks co-president of production Mark Sourian. "Wilson's background in robotics and artificial intelligence grounds his story with a frightening level of realism."
Wilson, who earned a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon U.'s Robotics Institute, is a contributing editor to Popular Mechanics and hosted the History Channel's "The Works."
Doubleday acquired world publishing rights to "Robopocalypse" from the Linda Chester Literary Agency.
