After piloting the “Hunger Games” franchise to more than $2 billion at the worldwide box office, Francis Lawrence is taking on another dystopian text — Philip K. Dick’s novel “Vulcan’s Hammer,” directing and producing the movie with New Republic Pictures and Electric Shepherd Productions.
Lawrence will produce the adaptation under his About:Blank banner alongside veteran producers Brian Oliver and Bradley Fischer of New Republic, Cameron MacConomy from About:Blank and Isa Dick Hackett from Electric Shepherd.
“We’re very pleased to partner with the passionate team at New Republic and thrilled by Francis’s ambitious vision for bringing ‘Vulcan’s Hammer’ to the big screen,” Hackett said in a statement announcing the team up.
Dick’s novel is set following a devastating world war as the 70 nations of Earth form the Unity party and cede global governance to the Vulcan AI system, which algorithmically dictates policies for Unity to carry out. But after Vulcan is attacked and a special agent is murdered, a description of the story explains, Unity director William Barris is called to unravel the mystery to figure out who — or what — wants to destroy the system he has dedicated his life to.
As one of the most celebrated authors of the last century, Dick’s work has been the basis for a number of major Hollywood projects, including Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner,” the two versions of “Total Recall,” Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049.”
This title was acquired from the Dick Estate under About:Blank’s first look deal with New Republic.
Best known for his work on “The Hunger Games” franchise (the filmmaker helmed three of the four films), “I Am Legend,” “Constantine” “Water for Elephants” and “Red Sparrow,” Lawrence is currently in post-production on “Slumberland.” Based on the comic strip “Little Nemo’s Adventures in Slumberland,” the Netflix film stars Jason Momoa, Marlow Barkley, Chris O’Dowd, Kyle Chandler, Weruche Opia and India De Beaufort for Netflix.
Most recently, Lawrence directed the first three episodes of the Apple TV plus series “See,” starring Momoa and Alfre Woodard. Lawrence serves as executive producer on the series, and developed it with Steven Knight. The filmmaker has also helmed music videos for top artists including Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and Janet Jackson.
Lawrence is repped by CAA, 3 Arts and Hansen, Jacobson. The Estate of Philip K. Dick and Electric Shepherd Productions are repped by Christopher Tricarico of Tricarico Chavez LLP.
