Producer John Davis Picks Up Rights to Hot Sci-Fi Short 'Archetype'

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John Davis

John Davis, riding high off of the surprise success of the super-powered found-footage movie Chronicle, is going back to the world of robots.

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The producer, who has a first-look deal at Fox and who produced 2004’s I, Robot, has picked up the rights to Archetype, a sci-fi short directed by  Aaron Sims, with plans on developing it into a feature. Davis dipped into his discretionary fund in order to make the acquisition.

Sims runs the Aaron Sims Co., a firm that specializes in previs and visual effects with credits including War Horse, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Thing remake. He acted as a concept artist and did creature design work for Stan Winston Studio, working on A.I. and War of the Worlds, among other movies. He began his career with Rick Baker, working in special effects and make-up on movies such as Gremlins 2, Batman Forever and Mighty Joe Young. 

The Archetype short tells the story of an eight-foot tall combat robot named RL7 that malfunctions during a mission, developing unexplained memories, causing its creators to investigate its odd behaviour.

The short ends with concept paintings detailing the robot on the run  while being chased by various metallic constructs.

Sims is attached to make his feature directorial debut on the feature. Newcomers Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy (not the one of Glee fame) are attached to pen the script.

John Norris, an exec producer on The Help, will produce with Davis.

Brittany Morrissey brought the project into Davis.

Sims, Busick and Murphy are repped by Paradigm. The scribes are additionally repped by Brucks Entertainment, 3 Arts Entertainment and Jackoway Tyerman.