Sony Working on Driverless Car Race Comedy

Feb 23, 2015 10:00 AM EST | Matt Mercuro

Gore Verbinski has had a pretty solid directorial career thus far with hits like "The Ring" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" on his resume. His latest movie for Sony Pictures might be his oddest choice yet.

The latest Verbinski's movie focuses on a team of engineers who embark on a transcontinental race using self-driving vehicles. Verbinski discussed his latest effort this weekend with Deadline.

"Essentially, we are going to take the funniest comedic actors of this generation and slowly unleash them as we examine the very notion of 'passengers' who fundamentally cannot remain passive," Verbinski said.

The film will focus on how racers react to an uneventful race when everything goes according to plan. Every good movie needs a little conflict, and the main issue Verbinski will tackle is how frustrated and helpless people can feel when they don't have control over technology.

"At a time when we give more and more liberty away for the benefits of technology, there is nothing more primal and direct as this specific physical abdication of control: Removing a steering wheel from the grasp of a human being," Verbinski added.

The premise of the movie, which remains untitled at press time, is certainly a little different, but its timing couldn't be better. Automakers and tech companies like General Motors and Google are busy working on creating autonomous vehicles with the goal of making a self-driving vehicles ready for mass production by 2017.

We don't know when Verbinski's film will be released, but the concept alone will make people wonder if self-driving cars are really such a good idea.

"We want to invert the whole premise of a road trip where the promise has always been, 'anything can happen' and say, 'what if anything can't happen?'" said Steve Conrad, who will write the film's screenplay, according to Deadline.

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