Steven Spielberg has formally agreed to bring cinematic legend Stanley Kubrick's last project to life.
In a press release issued late Tuesday, Spielberg announced that he will write and direct A.I., the science fiction epic that preoccupied Kubrick to varying extent for nearly two decades.
"Stanley had a vision for this project that was evolving over 18 years," the award-winning filmmaker said. "I am intent on bringing to the screen as much of that vision as possible, along with elements of my own."
A.I. is likely to center around our ambivalent relationship to technology, especially as said technology evolves to the point of artificial intelligence and so becomes a potential heir to humanity.
Among intimates, the ultra-secretive Kubrick, who died in 1999, reportedly referred to the film as "Pinocchio."
Names attached to the project at various points include science fiction writer Brian Aldiss, whose original short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" is widely believed to be the film's inspiration, and music-video director Chris Cunningham, who spent a year building robots for Kubrick.
Reports vary as to how much of the film Spielberg will inherit directly from Kubrick's hands, but insiders have stated that only production art and some special effects test footage survive the filmmaker.
"During preparations for A.I., Stanley came to realize that Steven would actually be the ideal director for the project," Kubrick's brother-in-law and longtime producer Jan Harlan said in the release. "I know they talked extensively about a collaboration."
A.I. is now set to start production July 10. No release date was immediately forthcoming.
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