Neill Blomkamp has been linked to a number of in-development projects with renowned sci-fi film franchises over the years, including Aliens, Halo, and RoboCop. Blomkamp addressed the latter in a new interview with JoBlo, indicating that his sequel would have aimed to emulate Paul Verhoeven's directing approach.
"That’s the only film that I would have ever done where I would have tried to basically simulate Paul Verhoeven’s directing style,” the District 9 and Elysium director told JoBlo.
“I wanted it to feel like it was the day after. Like if Dick Jones fell out of the window on Monday, this would have been Tuesday. It was like literally the next morning that it began. So it was a direct sequel exactly in the same style.”
Blomkamp's sequel was thought to be titled RoboCop Returns, and was based on an unproduced spec story written by the original RoboCop film's script writers, Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. His sequel/reboot would have skipped over the events of RoboCop 2 and 3, as well as the poorly-recieved 2014 remake starring Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, and Michael Keaton.
RoboCop Returns was first announced in January 2018, with Blomkamp continuing its development until August 2019. At that point, he bowed out of the project in favor of filming a supernatural horror film titled, Demonic, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters, Tripping Over) was selected to replace Blomkamp in November 2019.
However, in March 2023, MGM was acquired by Amazon, giving the streamer control of the RoboCop franchise. Amazon later revealed plans for a RoboCop TV series and a new film, both of which are considered to be independent from what Blomkamp and Forsythe were working on.