From the massive shape-shifting Transformers to Pixar's cute animated Wall-E, to superhero Iron Man, Hollywood has realized that robots -- or at least the appearance of looking like one -- can be turned into high-profile characters that auds will embrace as stars in pics that cross various genres.

After "Transformers" generated more than $700 million in coin worldwide last summer, nearly every major studio quickly secured its own giant robot property, snatching up the rights to popular comicbooks, toys or Saturday morning cartoons.

As Michael Bay's T-shirt puts it: "Even bigger giant f**king robots are coming."

�DreamWorks and Paramount are lensing sequel "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," due out in theaters next June, with Bay once again at the helm and more bots set to make their bigscreen appearance.
�Fox and New Regency have "Voltron" in the works, based on the popular animated Japanese TV series. Pic will be a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City and Mexico that follows five ragtag survivors of an alien attack who band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth's invaders.
�Warner Bros. has "Robotech," based on the anime TV series, that Tobey Maguire will produce and likely star in, about giant robots, known as mechas, that humans build based on technology from a downed spaceship and use to thwart alien attackers.
�Disney has "Calling All Robots" that scribe Michael Dougherty ("Superman Returns") is writing and producing at Disney with Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers described as an animated sci-fi adventure that's a throwback to old Godzilla movies.
�Producer Dean Devlin is developing a film version of the WizKids vidgame franchise "MechWarrior" at Par in which warriors do battle wearing giant mechanized suits of armor.

Robots have long been a staple of sci-fi movies, but many of the bots in the past were portrayed as villains.

In the new round of pics, they're now tools for their more humanoid counterparts.

"Today's audience is so technological," says Tom DeSanto, a producer of "Transformers" and its sequel. "It's a wired generation. Robots have become second nature rather than out of the ordinary. They're much more believable for them."

In films like "Transformers," they're also the main characters

"Our mantra was always, 'You have to care,'" DeSanto says. "If you don't care about the robots, you're not emotionally invested."

Studios want that emotion to not only translate at the B.O., but at retailers, as well.

The consumer products divisions are only happy for the projects, given that it makes coming up with everything from toys to T-shirts a lot easier to sell to the public.

That's because the properties have already proved popular as major revenue generators as licensed merchandise over the decades.

Hasbro co-produces the "Transformers" pics, for example, and used the pic to relaunch the popular '80s toyline.

"They make our jobs a lot easier," says one studio consumer products exec.

While every studio is eagerly looking for the next "Transformers," not every robot pic in the works features gigantic shape-shifting characters.

�The humanoid protector 'bot Gort returns in Fox's redo of "The Day the Earth Stood Still, toplined by Keanu Reeves in December.
�Warner Bros. will distrib "Terminator: Salvation" next summer, with McG directing Christian Bale as robot fighter John Connor, a character who appeared in the three previous outings.
�Marvel Studios is developing a sequel to "Iron Man" that would bring back Robert Downey Jr. as billionaire weapons developer Tony Stark who saves the day as alter ego Iron Man.
�Meanwhile, MGM is bringing back RoboCop in a reboot of the franchise.
�And not to be left out are the classic bots from the "Star Wars" franchise, namely R2-D2 and C3-PO, who will return to theaters in the animated feature "The Clone Wars" that WB will distrib Aug. 15.

"It comes down to man vs. machine," DeSanto says. "Humanity always likes to think in a Darwinian way that it will always overcome. But in the back of our head it's always something that scares us."