ROBOCOP RETURNS In The Works At MGM With DISTRICT 9 Helmer Neill Blomkamp On Board To Direct
MGM is developing a new RoboCop movie which has Neill Blomkamp on board to direct. The film will be based on a script writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner penned years ago as a sequel to the original...
Neill Blomkamp may never get to make that Alien movie, but he will get to leave his mark on another classic sci-fi franchise!
Deadline reports that The District 9 director has signed on to helm RoboCop Returns for MGM. The project is being developed from a script that was actually written Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner as a direct sequel to Paul Verhoeven's beloved original. Terminator reboot scribe Justin Rhodes will now get to work on a rewrite.
Yes, it looks like this will be a follow-up to Verhoeven's film and not a sequel to the 2014 reboot with Joe Kinnaman, which, while technically well made, toned down the OTT violence, satire and social commentary of the original.
Here's what Blomkamp had to say about boarding the project:
“The original definitely had a massive effect on me as a kid. I loved it then and it remains a classic in the end of 20th Century sci-fi catalog, with real meaning under the surface. Hopefully that is something we can get closer to in making of a sequel. That is my goal here. What I connected to as a kid has evolved over time. At first, the consumerism, materialism and Reaganomics, that ’80s theme of America on steroids, came through most strongly. But As I’ve gotten older, the part that really resonated with me is identity, and the search for identity.
As long as the human component is there, a good story can work in any time period, it’s not locked into a specific place in history. What’s so cool about RoboCop is that like good Westerns, sci-fi films and dramas, the human connection is really important to a story well told. What draws me now is someone searching for their lost identity, taken away at the hands of people who are benefiting from it, and seeing his memory jogged by events. That is most captivating. The other thing I am excited by is the chance to work again with Justin Rhodes. He has added elements that are pretty awesome, to a sequel that was set in the world of Verhoeven. This is a movie I would love to watch.”