Is The Creator based on a book? Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi epic explained

Gareth Edwards’ new movie The Creator his screens at the end of this month, but is the sci-fi epic based on a book?

Gareth Edwards burst onto the movie scene with Monsters, a beautiful low-budget sci-fi flick which he wrote and directed, as well as being director of photography, production designer, and overseeing the stunning visual effects.

Edwards next film was a jump in terms of budget, with Monsters costing a reported $500k, and Godzilla budgeted at $160 million. But it made nearly $530 million at the global box office, which led to Gareth directing Rogue One.

That ‘Star Wars Story’ had a troubled production, however, and it’s been six years since Edwards has made a movie. But he returns in 2023 with The Creator.

Is The Creator based on a book?

No, The Creator is not based on a book. It’s an entirely original story by Gareth Edwards, that he has turned into a script alongside Chris Weitz, with whom he previously collaborated on Rogue One.

Here’s the official synopsis for The Creator: “Amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, Joshua, a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war… and mankind itself.

“Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory, only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child.”

How AI inspired The Creator

While The Creator isn’t based on a book, Gareth Edwards says the story is inspired by the onset of AI. Which has progressed faster than he was expecting.

At a recent preview of footage from the movie – as covered by The Hollywood Reporter – Edwards said: “When we first pitched the movie to the studio, this idea of a war with AI, everyone wants to know the backstory like, ‘Hang on, why would we be at war with AI?’ ‘Well, they’ve been banned because it kind of went wrong.’ ‘But why would you ban AI? It’s going to be great,’ and blah, blah blah.

“It was all these sort of ideas that you have to set up that maybe humanity would reject this thing and not be that cool about it. And the way it’s played out, the setup of our movie is pretty much the last few months, it’s kind of strange. Go see it before November, because that’s when we’re going to be enslaved!”

The Creator his screens on September 29, 2023, while to find out why Gareth Edwards is calling one of this characters “the Oppenheimer of AI,” click here.