Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel, a part graphic novel, part picture book by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett. Developing the movie is Lost creator and Star Trek director J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot Productions.

The movie will portray an alternate history in which a man builds a robot in 1893 in hopes of preventing the deaths of many men in various wars and conflicts. Boilerplate fought with the likes of Theodore Roosevelt and Lawrence of Arabia, and went on to lead something of a Forrest Gump life, traveling the world with the Navy and even taking part in the silent movie era among many other historical adventures. The character caught the attention of studios when many people began thinking that Boilerplate was an actual robot used in combat in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Click over to the other side to read a synopsis and check out a trailer for Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel.