| We get the sense that someone working on Vin Diesel / Peter Segal ultimate-weapon-kiddie-comedy project The Machine just started crying as another ultimate-weapon-romance has beaten them to the title. Toby Stephens and Caity Lotz have been hired to start work on a romantic sci-fi project called… The Machine. This one sounds very different to the Diesel / Segal film, though, focusing as it does on a Cold War-torn near-future UK where the Ministry Of Defence has been working on a robotic soldier. The creation, a female tech warrior (Lotz) has speed, strength and a morals-free attitude to killing. But then a bug crops up in programming and the prototype ends up destroying the lab and everyone in its path. There’s one hope: lead scientist, Vince McCarthy (Stephens) hasn’t given up hope on his lethal lady, and he continues to work on her in secret. Could her too-close-to-human nature be what prompts the “romantic” aspect of the movie’s pitch? Little White Lies director Caradog James has written the script and will kick off shooting in Wales next month. | 
