Sony has put production of Singularity, Roland Emmerich's big-budget sci-fi film, on hold while the filmmakers revise the script, TheWrap has confirmed.

The producers have brought on Ray Kurzweil -- perhaps the world's foremost expert on the futuristic topic of singularity -- to help.

The movie was scheduled to begin production in March and will be pushed back.

An individual close to the studio told TheWrap that Sony does not expect the delay in entering production will affect the targeted release date of May 2013.

Emmerich and composer Harold Kloser are writing the screenplay. The movie has a budget estimated at $175 million.

Larry J. Franco and Kloser are producing the movie. No actors have been attached.

Kurzweil, a futurist, is an authority in the concept of technological singularity and the author of The Singularity is Near. Kurzweil puts forth the idea that intelligence will become nonbiological -- that there will be no clear distinction between humans and machines, between reality and virtual reality.

In the movie, a nanotechnology pioneer transfers his injured son's consciousness into nanobots that take his physical form.

Emmerich's most recent project is Anonymous, also at Sony. The studio had initially planned a wide release for the movie, which explores the idea that Shakespeare didn't really write all the plays and poems attributed to him.

But shortly before the movie was scheduled to be released, Sony chose to switch to a limited release of about 250 theaters.

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