After years of sharing his excitement over the project, director Neill Blomkamp revealed earlier this year that he was parting ways with RoboCop Returns, yet the project has found a new director in Little Monsters filmmaker Abe Forsythe, as confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter. The new film is set to be a direct sequel to the original 1987 RoboCop, ignoring the events of the film’s two sequels. While the character has become a seminal figure in the realm of ’80s action films, the big-screen adventures of the character have failed to live up to the success of the original, which also includes in 2014 reboot of the concept.
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The original film saw a cop become fatally injured, with the latest advancements in technology allowing him to come back to life with technological upgrades, making him the ultimate force for the police department. In addition to earning theatrically-released sequels, the concept also earned TV adaptations, which includes RoboCop: The Animated Series.
Part of the problems faced by attempts to revive the property is subsequent projects failing to capture the gritty tone of the original. With this new film set to be a direct sequel and with original writers Ed Neumier and Michael Miner having crafted the upcoming sequel’s script, along with Justin Rhodes, possibly finding a path towards success. Forsythe is set to re-write the most recent version of that script. Neumier and Miner are still set to serve as producers on the upcoming film.
Neumeier shared earlier this year what to expect from the project when Blomkamp was still attached.
“We talked about it a couple of years back and I reminded [MGM] that we had written a very rough sequel back in 1988 which then was stopped by the writer’s strike, the same year,” Neumeier shared with HN Entertainment. “And they looked at it and they said ‘Oh, good!’, so we did some more work on that and then Neill Blomkamp found out about it and he said, ‘I have always wanted to do this, this is my dream project’ and MGM was very very pleased to get into business with him.”
He added, “I don’t want to talk too much about it or somebody will call me and tell me to shut up, but we’re hopeful and I think Neill really really wants to make a good RoboCop movie. His idea is that it should be the proper [original director Paul] Verhoeven… if Verhoeven had directed a movie right after RoboCop… I think that’s what he is trying to achieve and I hope he does. We’ll see what happens next.”
Stay tuned for details on RoboCop Returns.
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