“The Wild Robot is a once-in-a-generation book,” says DreamWorks Animation President Margie Cohn, and to celebrate a story that transcends pages, Peter Brown’s #1 New York Times bestseller has been adapted for the big screen. The Wild Robot follows the story of Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), a robot stranded on an uninhabited island, and how she navigates the harsh environment and forges new relationships with the wildlife.
DreamWorks reached out to Brown even before the book was published, seeing the potential for it to be a landmark film. “At DreamWorks, our goal is to transport audiences into immersive places that they’ve never experienced before, whether it’s the fairytale landscapes of Shrek and Puss in Boots, the fantastical prehistoric world of The Croods or the natural beauty of Kung Fu Panda and, of course, the How to Train Your Dragon films,” Cohn says. “But our films also explore the emotional terrain of what it means to be alive: to be lonely, to be afraid, to experience the thrill of the unknown, to find the brave places inside yourself that you may not have known existed, and, above all, to find your home, and your family, in whatever form that may be. We were thrilled that Peter trusted us with his story.”
Three-time Academy award-nominated writer-director Chris Sanders, known for his work on How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods, encountered the novel through his daughter’s school assignment. “What struck me most about the book was its deceptively simple yet profound emotional depth,” Sanders says. “I connected with its innocence and its earnestness. I’m drawn to stories with strong emotional undercurrents. While I appreciate big adventure stories, it’s the quieter, more intimate moments that truly resonate. These are the elements I prioritize as a filmmaker, and I thought The Wild Robot exemplified them beautifully.”
Author Peter Brown had a passion for animation from a young age, and the adaptation of The Wild Robot felt like fate to him. “When I heard that DreamWorks wanted to make a movie based on The Wild Robot, it felt like my life was coming full circle,” Brown says. “Books and movies are very different art forms, so it’s only natural for The Wild Robot movie to differ from the book, but I had numerous discussions with the filmmakers, and I knew their goal was to capture the spirit of the story that I had dreamed up years ago.”
Get in touch with your wild side The Wild Robot as it opens in Philippine cinemas on October 9.
