Hollywood is Making a Road Race Comedy about Self-Driving Cars
Could Google’s driverless car be the next big matinee idol?
It’s being reported that Sony pictures has acquired the rights to an untitled film that’s referred to as the Driverless Car Race picture. Still in the development stages, Deadline is describing the plot thusly:
It’s a large scale action adventure comedy that’s best described as a transcontinental car race with autonomous vehicles. The race originates as a beta test to vet competing software companies that would take the lead on futuristic driver-less vehicles, but it all takes an It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World-like comedic turn when the trial run devolves into major road race after the competitive nature of the start-ups trumps their altruistic intentions. The subjects, normal people who are passengers in these cars, eventually try to take control of the experiment. A simple trek from Paris to Beijing, goes awry as vehicles head off the road and off the grid, getting into all kinds of trouble.
Apparently, “the project is on a fast track.” (HA!)
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The film will be directed by Gore Verbinksi, a filmmaker best known for helming the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and the recent Lone Ranger film (although he’ll probably never top his 1997 magnum opus, Mouse Hunt). Attached to write the movie is Steven Conrad, who penned The Pursuit of Happyness and the recent The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
Verbinski is apparently interested in driverless car technology, but he sees it more as an existential threat to mankind than as a convenient way to take a nap during your morning commute.
“At a time when we give more and more liberty away for the benefits of technology, there is nothing more primal and direct as this specific physical abdication of control: Removing a steering wheel from the grasp of human being,” Verbinski said. “The driver-less car is coming. It’s right around the bend, and it represents an immediate and relevant opportunity to explore the classic ‘Man against Machine’ genre spliced into a large scale Automotive Rally. Stating the obvious – Things are going to get out of control.”
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Although the project is still untitled, we’ve got a few names we’d like to suggest:
Dawn of the Planet of the MB F 015 Concepts
Self-Driving Ms. Daisy
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Herbie Goes Bananas Rip-Off
Terminator 5: Rush Hour
Riding in Cars with Nobody
Gary Numan’s New Favorite Movie
It’s Like Vanishing Point, but Not Enjoyable
Rat Race
News Source: Deadline
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