Director Gareth Edwards' Mystery Sci-Fi Project Could Still Happen

Before Gareth Edwards' breakout directorial debut, Monsters, even opened in theaters, he had another project in the works. Edwards was set to direct what was described as an "epic human story, set in a futuristic world without humanity." The director instead moved on to make Godzilla, which led to him directing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Edwards' schedule is pretty crowded at the moment, and he's already set to direct Godzilla 2 next. But producer Timur Bekmambetov (Ben-Hur) is hopeful that the earlier Gareth Edwards project will one day get made.

Even when this film was first announced, very little was known about Edwards' once potential sophomore effort. Back in 2011, Peter dug up some information on the film, and he described it as "a robot Star Wars":

My good sources tell me that the still untitled project is about a young human child (probably around 5 years old) and a robot who travel across the galaxy in search of mankind's origin in a world void of humanity and filled with robots. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Gareth is pitching this project as "a robot Star Wars." I've heard they are still figuring out the script, so it might evolve from there.

Edwards has never said too much about the project, once titled Forever, but he said the budget wasn't going to be massive:

It will require all my resources. The trick is to take the positive elements of having more money and the positive elements of having no money, and try to combine the two.

The rumor was the director was planning to shoot the science-fiction drama for $35 million. At one point, he even shot a test film for the project, which was written by Dante Harper (Venom). It would've been quite a leap going from the shoestring budget of Monsters to $35 million, but Edwards proved he could work on a larger scale with Godzilla.

For the past few years, we've heard nothing about the project. When we spoke with Hardcore Henry producer Timur Bekmambetov, however, he gave us a brief update:

It was the next project he wanted to make. He's busy now with these big, giant movies, but I hope we'll make it. I thought it was a very cool, very warm story.

Bekmambetov and Edwards haven't forgotten about the film. The two directors have just been too busy to get around to it. The film sounds rather ambitious for an original science-fiction film, but hopefully after Godzilla and the inevitable success of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Godzilla 2 Edwards will have the clout and the time to get this project off the ground soon.