On a lovely afternoon in México City we went for beers at Primos to celebrate Gabe Ibañez signing.

He passionately told us about his recently released feature, AUTOMATA, and how the script was conceived. AUTOMATA is the story of Jacq Vaucan, an insurance agent at ROC Robotics Corporation, who investigates cases of protocol violations from robots harming humans. It’s an action-packed, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi thriller starring Antonio Banderas that makes us wonder if it is possible to achieve consciousness in robots. The film is in select theatres and on demand.

“In 2009, a post in a tech website told the story of how a group of engineers had created a 3D printer capable of producing most of the pieces needed to build a new 3D printer,” explains Gabe. “It was a machine virtually capable of cloning itself. This disturbing piece of news and my teenage readings of Isaac Asimov configured the gene of what Automata’s script would become.”

Check out some behind-the-scenes photos in the gallery below.