By: Russ Burlingame on September 15, 2012
Jose Padilha’s much-anticipated (or dreaded, depending who you ask) remake of RoboCop is officially underway, with its first full day of shooting taking place in Toronto, and ComingSoon.net has photos of the revamped peacekeeper.
In a decidedly more slimmed-down suit that emphasizes black plastic over the stainless steel of Peter Weller’s iconic original, the costume feels a bit more like a Star Wars storm trooper than anything out of the Paul Verhoeven catalog.
The black, reflective visor is apparently translucent, and also flips up on top of his head, meaning that the star’s face will be visible for most of the film, whether or not the “mask” is down. Star Joel Kinnaman had suggested in interviews that his RoboCop would have something of a more human face than Weller’s did.
The all-black look will likely cause some controversy–while it’s probablya more logical color scheme for a law enforcement official, it seems a bit more openly fascistic than the Verhoeven version did on the face of it, and beyond that there’s the fact that any time you change one of these iconic costumes you’ll have fans who are unhappy, whether you do it well or not.
It’s probably worth noting that at least one memorable scene from the original will apparently be kept–if you’ll notice, Alex Murphy’s right hand is fully visible at the end of his armored arm, whereas the left hand appears to be robotic. That’s likely a hint that the scene during which Murphy was tortured and his hand mangled will remain or be reinterpreted in the Padilha version.
