8 Sci-Fi Movie Remakes You Didn't Know Were In The Works

4. Short Circuit

Short Circuit
TriStar Pictures

If BB-8, K-2SO and WALL-E have taught us anything, it's that people absolutely adore cute, likeable robots.

This is why it's not too surprising to learn that Short Circuit - a 1986 adventure about a robot that's struck by lightning, gaining human-level intelligence in the process - is currently in the process of being remade.

It all sounds too easy. A family-friendly movie about a lovable android (who'll also sell a ton of tie-in merchandise) with a positive message about peace and love would be a surefire hit. There's no way they can mess this up, right?

Well, it would appear so, until you learn that the remake's director, Tim Hill, wishes to make his movie much darker than the original.

Hill told the LA Times that Short Circuit contains a lot of heavy themes for a family movie, and so wants to put more of a focus on these in the remake. Of course, this could work beautifully and we can't judge it before we see it, but making a dark movie about a sentient robot has already been done to death - see Terminator.

Regardless, Short Circuit is still somewhere in development - we haven't had any updates on it in a handful of years - and when it does land, don't expect it to be as whimsical as the original film you watched when you were younger.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!