Mr. Robot Creator Adapting Fritz Lang’ Classic Metropolis to TV

Mr. Robot has been celebrated by both the tech world and TV industry for its closer-to-reality depiction of technology and its refreshing approach to storytelling. This is largely because of the efforts by its creator Sam Esmail who has written and directed most of the Mr. Robot episodes himself. With the show now approaching its 3rd season (out of a planned five), Esmail is also looking beyond and has been tapped to work on some interesting projects including a television mini-series remake of Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis. Metropolis was a head of its time in 1927 in terms of special effects. Back when films were still in black and white in the silent-era, it featured breathtaking special effects pioneered by Eugen Schufftan which used a complex set of mirrors to allow the actors to be depicted as if they are part of the miniature city.

The original Metropolis was critically panned when it debuted in theaters and was met with mixed enthusiasm from viewers, citing its preoccupation with socio-political themes as heavy handed. Even famed author H.G. Wells was not pleased with the film, stating that the movie is a cliché and that he found it too derivative of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Metropolis was received with warmer grace later on however and is now included in many top movies of all time lists. Roger Ebert of the Chicago-Sun Times even called it one of the greatest achievements of the silent era.

The mini-series project seems to be a perfect fit for Esmail, whose themes explored in Mr. Robot about the role of technology in the contemporary social and political speheres are not too distant with those of the Lang classic’s dystopian depiction. Season 3 of Mr. Robot will launch in 2017 but the Metropolis mini-series project is still in its early stages of planing although sources close to The Hollywood Reporter say that Universal Cable Productions is willing to spend $10 million per-episode to create the project.