EXCLUSIVE: Midnight Special and Destroyer outfit Automatik is lining up a feature version of buzzed-about sci-fi short Construct from Thor: The Dark World VFX supervisor Kevin Margo.

La La Land producer Fred Berger and Midnight Special producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones will produce the feature, which will tell the story of working man Aiden Connolly whose robotic son is kidnapped by a desperate father working with a rogue group of AIs in a world where robots represent the lowest socio-economic class. To rescue his son, Aiden must navigate the violent cultural divide by inhabiting their mechanical form.

The project has buy-in from tech firms including Nvidia, Google, Chaos Group, Optitrack and Boxx. Script is being penned by Marcos Gabriel with Nightfox financing development and Alexander & Lee’s Brandon Millan also producing. Embedded in this story is the short on which the film is being based.

Margo has been a member of Tim Miller’s (Deadpool) animation and VFX house Blur Studios for a dozen years, working on Thor 2, Batman: Arkham Knight, Halo 4, Call Of Duty and Destiny 2 and the Deadpool test footage which helped trigger the film’s greenlight. Construct will mark his feature directorial debut.

Automatik’s most recent productions include Karyn Kusama’s well-received Toronto pic Destroyer, starring Nicole Kidman, sci-fi-drama I Think We’re Alone Now with Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning, and music drama Teen Spirit, also starring Fanning.

Margo is repped by Scott Carr at Management SGC and Gregg Gellman at Morris Yorn. Marcos Gabriel is represented by UTA, Management SGC and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein.