Director Ruairi Robinson will get his feature debut on Qwerty’s anticipated sci-fi-thriller The Animators, which is due to shoot in the first quarter of 2011.

Speaking to Screen International Qwerty Films chairman Michael Kuhn confirmed the attachment and also announced its development of a teen horror, Do Or Die, set to be directed by Bernard Rose (Mr Nice, Ivansxtc).

The Animators, the story of a crew of astronauts picked off one by one by a malevolent force, recently received six votes on this year’s Brit List of hot screenplays, making it the joint-seventh most-anticipated UK script.

Clive Dawson (The Bunker) has adapted the screenplay from a Sydney J. Bounds short story.

Robinson, nominated for an Oscar for his 2001 short Fifty Percent Grey, is known for sci-fi shorts The Silent City, starring Cillian Murphy and Don Wycherley and BlinkyTM, the story of a murderous domesticated robot starring Max Records (Where The Wild Things Are).

Bernard Rose’s next feature will be Tolstoy adaptation Boxing Day, starring Danny Huston and Mathew Jacobs, which is due to start shooting in Colorado this winter.