RoboCop’ Returns

[DarkKnight88]

If the script is really great, Weller could change his mind.

 

[Pennywise]

If the script is really great, Weller could change his mind.

That or a paycheck! Would hope it's the former! Doesn't seem likely at the moment, unfortunately.

 

[Batmannerism]

First I've heard of this. I was a massive fan of Robocop ( the 1987 original, the sequels and remake = )

Still, if someone could pull it off today it would be Blomkamp !

 

[Pennywise]

Just downloaded the script for Corporate Wars. Can't wait to read it!

 

[Lily Adler]

Oh **** is this another Alien 3 scenario?

 

[TheVileOne]

I hope we don't end up with another The Predator.

 

[Aximili86]

It'd be pretty amazing to get Weller back, but wouldn't be something I'd count on. He sort of strikes me as the principled type, like if he's made up his mind that he's over Robocop (sort of seemed to be his attitude the last few years), I'm not even sure Neumeier writing/producing and a truck load of money parked outside his house would change his tune.

Buuuuut, I mean stranger things have happened. Who'd have thought in like 2011 we'd be getting Hamill, Fisher & Ford returning to Star Wars?

Kinda can't see Weller happening personally, but it'd be a big deal if they can manage to convince him.

 

[TheVileOne]

Except in the Star Wars sequels, the actors were playing their original characters decades later after they'd grown older.

Murphy is a cyborg robot. Love Peter Weller, but it doesn't seem practical for him to play the role again. I doubt he'd be interested in doing a suitless, motion capture role or only doing the voice and mocapping a version of his face over another actor.

Plus, he's said he all he has to say about RoboCop. He doesn't even want to do anymore interviews in documentaries about it. He's said everything he wants to say about the film and the character. The man has moved on.

Had they done something like 10+ years ago, they might've been able to get him on board, but they waited too long tried to do a ****ty remake that didn't work.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

People are far too harsh on the remake for me. It doesn't touch the original, which is in my top 10 of all time, but it was better than the sequels for me. And I say this as a fan of the 2nd movie.

But yeah, if they got Weller back it would be awesome.

 

[Aximili86]

Nah, the remake was bullsh*t. Just every-other-action-movie with a Robocop branding skin.

Also, Kinnaman's about as unlikeable a presence on-screen as Gaddafi.

Vile, it should be pretty easy to work the ageing thing into this if they do intend on using Weller and actually get him. Probably wasn't a part of the original script from '88, but hey, his face is still organic, should be pretty easy to explain that part ages as-normal. I never really saw Robo as necessarily immortal in an ageing sense anyway, at least not without upgrades. You'd have to figure the human tissue goes through a life-cycle as normal, Terminator style, only you can't exactly replace it (at least not without it no longer being "Murphy"), the head stuff at least.

 

[OutOfBoose]

I'd be up for aged organic tissue on Robocop if Weller is in the film. Just set it 50-100 years into the future after the events of the original. No need for digital de-aging and all that crap.

But I'm not sure I need this film. Robocop is such a product of the era, that the only chance for a sequel to match it would be challenging new social trends and ideas. Is that script from late 80s relevant today? What it should be about beyond violent action? But even violent action... Lack of blood squibs in modern action films is a big turn off for me. There's just no impact.

 

[Aximili86]

Haha, I'd hardly worry about the violence under Blomkamp, he can deliver on all that Verhoeven over-the-top gorey stuff in his sleep.

It'll have CG to the effects, sure, but hey, if you've gotta go a CG route Blomkamp's the guy that can make mechanical stuff look awesome. And Robo himself is still gonna be practical, you'd figure.

As for the script, Neumeier says in that interview they've done a couple more passes at it, both he & Miner and then Blomkamp and his writing partner, so sure they've updated it contemporarily. They'd basically have to.

From memory that script features a time jump anyway, like Murphy's found on a scrap-pile decades later and re-activated, the world's gone all full-on cyberpunk since. I never loved that idea of leaning that hard into the futurism, but if anyone's going to pull it off it's these guys.

 

[OutOfBoose]

I read that rough draft. Robo being on a scrap yard doesn't make much sense. Costly hardware, and, more importantly, living tissue can't sustain itself, it needs lotsa baby food. Maybe conservation in some liquid, frozen or whatever. I need my Robo to be realistic.

As for the future. They don't even need to invent it much. 30 (it will be 35 or even 40 by the time and if they released it theaters) years passed since the original. It can be a bit twisted version of our current reality.

 

[samsnee]

This project will be like Predator, Alien, and Terminator reboots. Lots of talk about tapping back into the roots of what made the originals work but will probably be horrible. I just don't see them making the kind of R-rated movie that the original was.

 

[chamber-music]

Weller has a steady second career as a TV director.

The physical aspects of playing Robocop took their toll on Weller back in the day and I doubt he want to comeback unless they made the suit and make up way more efficient and easy for wear since his in his early seventies now.

Robert John Burke who played Robocop in their third film is probably sitting and watching this thinking what the hell. Seeing Blomkamp chasing after Weller who doesn't want the role while he is sitting at home probably waiting for his agent to ring him. Burke was the chief in BlacKkKlansman

 

[TheVileOne]

Nah, the remake was bullsh*t. Just every-other-action-movie with a Robocop branding skin.

Also, Kinnaman's about as unlikeable a presence on-screen as Gaddafi.

Vile, it should be pretty easy to work the ageing thing into this if they do intend on using Weller and actually get him. Probably wasn't a part of the original script from '88, but hey, his face is still organic, should be pretty easy to explain that part ages as-normal. I never really saw Robo as necessarily immortal in an ageing sense anyway, at least not without upgrades. You'd have to figure the human tissue goes through a life-cycle as normal, Terminator style, only you can't exactly replace it (at least not without it no longer being "Murphy"), the head stuff at least.

I doubt they get Weller. That aspect sounds ridiculous because then it takes the movie into Terminator: Genisys territory. "Well it's human tissue so that's why..."

 

[samsnee]

The remake was horrible. How come the effects in the original were more believable than the new one? The new one looked like a guy in an Iron Man suit.

 

[Lily Adler]

They ignored the the body horror aspect of the original.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I guess if Terminators can age, why not Robocops?

 

[DarkKnight88]

One was about a machine wrestling with the human parts left over.

The other is about a man wrestling with the machine parts taking over.

I prefer the former.

 

[Guts]

They ignored the the body horror aspect of the original.

Except for the scene where they reveal what he looks like without the robocop suit. Just like the baby from Eraserhead.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Joel Kikkoman has no charisma.

RoboRemake didn't feel like a robot.

 

[Pennywise]

I didn't see the reboot, but Joel Kinnaman got nothing on Peter Weller!

 

[Pennywise]

Great interview with Ed Neumeier. Talks about RoboCop Returns a bit around the 12:40 mark, and says Peter Weller returning "is the only way to do it, actually".

Even though Weller likely won't be involved, I do admire Neill and the writers really want him back for the role.

 

[2kt09]

Reboot would've been better if it was less of a remake. A lot of genuine too close to real themes that I know for sure Blomkamp is bound to gloss over them. I'm still excited to see his spin on this.