Although Daniel H. Wilson‘s novel, Robopocalypse is now complete, it won’t be published until June 2011 but that hasn’t stopped screenwriter Drew Goddard from finishing a screenplay for a big-screen adaptation while the novel was still being completed.

While there were rumors floating early in the year that Steven Spielberg may direct the adaptation, those were dashed when he chose to direct War Horse instead. Now, Deadline reports that Spielberg has in-fact committed to direct the big-screen adaptation of Wilson’s Robopocalypse, about the human race’s attempt to survive an apocalyptic robot uprising.

Spielberg will begin principal photography in January 2012, and the film is set to be released by Disney’s Touchstone Pictures in 2013.