RoboCop’ Returns

[James.B]

MGM is developing a new installment of RoboCop and has set District 9 director Neill Blomkamp to helm the picture, which is titled RoboCop Returns. The studio hopes to revive a franchise that began with the Paul Verhoeven-directed satirical sci-fi action thriller that Orion released in 1987. Original writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner are producing and exec producing, respectively. Justin Rhodes, who co-wrote the Terminator film that Tim Miller is shooting, will rewrite the script that Neumeier and Miner wrote years ago as a planned sequel to Verhoeven’s hit, an installment that never happened. That duo is creatively involved in moving forward their creation for the first time since the original.

Blomkamp jumped at the chance to do a RoboCop that harkens back to and picks up the story line from the original film. His own films have highlighted themes like immigration, exclusion and the haves and have nots, and while RoboCop — made in the Reagan era and focused on corporate greed — a different part of the original story has become most important to him.

“The original definitely had a massive effect on me as a kid,” Blomkamp told Deadline. “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.”

https://deadline.com/2018/07/robocop-neill-blomkamp-directing-robocop-returns-justin-rhodes-ed-neumeier-michael-miner-mgm-1202424639/

 

[Pennywise]

Very interesting!

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Pennywise]

Hope Peter Weller will return!

 

[Spider-Fan]

So this is a direct sequel to the original? Will it ignore Robocop 2/3? I hope Weller returns.

 

[David H.]

Will Sharlto be the new Morton or Boddicker?

 

[Deck Rickard]

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA


Okay, this could be interesting. I wonder who they'll get to play Robo and Ann Lewis.

 

[_Superman_]

Personally I thought the new movie wasn't that bad.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Yeah, I kinda liked it. It just needed better action sequences and Robocop needed a better look. The all black thing didn't work.

 

[Kane52630]

Justin Rhodes will rewrite the script that Neumeier and Miner wrote years ago as a planned sequel to Verhoeven’s hit, an installment that never happened.

I had to look it up...


http://robocoparchive.com/archive/feature-robocop2-cw.htm

ROBOCOP2: CORPORATE WARS

According to Neumeier one of the reasons for the success of the original ROBOCOP is that "it has a whimsical realationship with the audience. Sometimes, a rather nasty relationship. Sometimes it's really out to just **** the audience" One look at the first five pages of Neumeier and Miner's ROBOCOP II is all it takes to discover that the authors fully intend to continue that very special relationship with their public.

In fact, the story has barely begun before Neumeier and Miner pull off what would have been one of the most audacious mind-****s in film history, had it ever made it to the screen. Starting off in a suitable, slam-bang fashion with a group of thieves using a truck-mounted cannon to blast their way into a bank, the script no sooner has RoboCop arrive and smoke the criminals then one bad guy, with his last ounce of strength, turns the cannon on Murphy, blowing him to metallic dust. The screen goes black as Murphy's RoboVision fizzles out, then, after several seconds, lights up with a title card: 25 Years Later.


RoboCop awakens to a radically altered civilization, one where cities have been turned into self-contained "plexes" such as New York Plex, RioPlex and DelhiPlex. The privileged citizens of these communities spend their days on the LeisureGrid, munching burgers served by Food ServiceDroids or cavorting with SexBots in high-tech brothels. Those who can't afford the go-go lifestyle become OutPlexers,derelicts exiled to the limitless shantytowns that surround the cities' walls. The President of the U.S (or AmeriPlex) is a former comedian ( the more things change...), while the man calling the shots-and maneuvering to buy out the U.S government and turn it into a privately owned, corporate entity - is "super-entrepreneur" Ted Flicker.

Discovered by two of Flicker's flunkies in the ruins of the now-defunct Omni Consumer Products, RoboCop is revived, repaired, and interfaced with NeuroBrain, the plex's central computer system. Soon enough, he is entangles in the flunkies desperate grab for power, and finds himself engaged in an attempt to discredit the commander of Internal Grid Security, involved in a bloodthirsty campaign to remove defensless OutPlexers from the city's perimeter, and finally driven to take matters into his own hands when a group of terrorists threaten the plex with a neutron bomb. Throughout, he is tinkered with by a reclusive scientist, aided by a Chinese hacker, and courted by the disembodied spirit of NeuroBrain (actually the thought impulses of the scientist's dead wife).

The scipt's plexes seem even more media-happy than the television-obsessed Detroit of ROBOCOP - the airwaves are filled with rapid-fire NewsBlips and commercials for mood enhansing drugs, while the major opinion-shaper of the day is a space-bred rapper named MoonDog. Yet, for all of its intriguing aspects, the script as it stands is very much what Neumeier and Miner proclaimed it to be:a rough draft. If they had been given the chance to do further work, they may have imbued the tale with the humanity it lacked, restored RoboCop to the center of the film rather than reducing him to a pawn in the hands of future-day movers and shakers, and cleared up a storyline that jumped prestige-hungry executives, power-mad terrorists, and sadistic security police in a nearly incomprehensible, internecine conflict. Of course, they never got the chance.

 

[Fallen Angel]

I'm interested in this. I also liked the reboot with Killerman and Keaton a few years back.

 

[NotNickFury]

Intriguing that this will indeed be a continuation of the original film and overlook all subsequent installments. Very Superman Returns-esque.

 

[Deck Rickard]

That premise sounds interesting, though who knows how much of it this version will retain.

 

[Kane52630]

Intriguing that this will indeed be a continuation of the original film and overlook all subsequent installments. Very Superman Returns-esque.

It seems to be the trend now with Terminator, Halloween, and (maybe) Predator.

 

[2kt09]

Too good to be true

 

[DarthSkywalker]

 

[Da-Scribe]

Yeah, I kinda liked it. It just needed better action sequences and Robocop needed a better look. The all black thing didn't work.

Wasn't that sorta the point of the all black look? It wasn't supposed to actually be a look that we as the audience would like. It was just a product Keaton's character trying to make him look more marketable. Something like that I think. I haven't seen it in awhile.

Excited for this sequel though.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Wasn't that sorta the point of the all black look? It wasn't supposed to actually be a look that we as the audience would like. It was just a product Keaton's character trying to make him look more marketable. Something like that I think. I haven't seen it in awhile.

Excited for this sequel though.

Yeah, that was the point of it in the movie, but they could have made it a little more aesthetically pleasing to the audience. He looked like he was wearing a rubber suit (which is what it probably was).

 

[Da-Scribe]

Yeah, that was the point of it in the movie, but they could have made it a little more aesthetically pleasing to the audience. He looked like he was wearing a rubber suit (which is what it probably was).

Ah yeah, I hear you on that. Shame too, I think that design distracted a lot of people from what was a really fine performance from Kinnaman. The subtle accent change as he became less human was a really cool touch to me.

I wonder how this movie will handle the look of RoboCop, which is just as much in the spirit of the 80s as anything else in the film.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Ah yeah, I hear you on that. Shame too, I think that design distracted a lot of people from what was a really fine performance from Kinnaman. The subtle accent change as he became less human was a really cool touch to me.

I wonder how this movie will handle the look of RoboCop, which is just as much in the spirit of the 80s as anything else in the film.

Yeah, I agree that Kinnaman was good in the role. It was an interesting take on the story, with Murphy knowing who he is when he first becomes Robocop and then being retooled to become more of a machine later on. Oldman and Keaton were also really good in the film.

 

[StarLord]

Wow. This is unexpected.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Now let's just hope Paul Verhoeven doesn't suddenly resurface and demand that Blomkamp's film be scrapped until he completes an extremely pretentious Robocop prequel trilogy.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Robocop Returns!

A direct sequel to Verhoeven's original classic, written by the original writers/creators, directed by Neill Blomkamp.

This sounds perfect. Too good to be true even.




On a side note, I'm so happy for Neill. I'm still bitter over what went down with Alien 5. I hope he kills this and makes a great film!

 

[Boom]

Now let's just hope Paul Verhoeven doesn't suddenly resurface and demand that Blomkamp's film be scrapped until he completes an extremely pretentious Robocop prequel trilogy.

 

[Deck Rickard]

He had better keep Die Antwoord the **** away from this.