Oscar Isaac to lead adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s Ex Machina

Oscar Isaac is swapping out his Resistance pilot jumpsuit in a galaxy far, far away for a business suit in New York City Hall. Oh and Force-powered Jedi friends for superpowers of his own. THR reports that the Star Wars actor has closed a deal to star in and produce a new feature film adaptation of Brian K. Vaughn’s acclaimed political thriller/sci-fi comic Ex Machina for Legendary Pictures. This is not to be confused with Ex Machina, that other sci-fi movie also starring Oscar Isaac, which is why this upcoming film has been retitled to The Great Machine.

Winner of the 2005 Eisner Award for Best New Series, Ex Machina is the story of Mitchell Hundred, a civil engineer with a penchant for the history of New York, who became the world’s first and only superhero thanks to a mysterious extradimensional explosion that left him with the ability to communicate with and control any mechanical devices. Known as The Great Machine (hence the new title), Mitchell became famous for his heroics, including stopping one of the two planes on 9-11, only to face his greatest challenge yet… Retire as a superhero and become Mayor of New York.

I personally own all the Ex Machina graphic novels and cannot recommend them enough. Playing out like “West Wing meets Professor X”, they are all about Mitchell dealing with new political crises as threats from his superhero past comes back to haunt him, and they’re phenomenal. A perfectly cast Isaac will star as Mitchell as well as co-produce with his longtime manager and producing partner Jason Spire, with Vaughan himself on board as exec producer. No director is attached yet, but Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel, the duo who penned the recent Kristen Stewart drama Seberg, have been tapped to pen the script.

Ex Machina/The Great Machine has had a long road to the big screen. Shortly after Vaughan and artist Tony Harris first debuted Ex Machina in 2005, New Line Cinema snapped up the rights for an adaptation. However, the studio could never get the production going and in 2012 the rights reverted back to Vaughan/Harris. The prolific Vaughan (whose comic book work also includes the award-winning Y: The Last Man, Saga, Pride of Baghdad and more) had recently signed a three-year first-look deal with Legendary and this is the first result of that relationship.

Last Updated: January 20, 2020