RoboCop Reboot - Part 2

[Gianakin_]

Apparently it will be.

 

[crazyrabbits]

More information on the script.

Spoiler

2029.

In Iran, mercenaries hired by OmniCorp escort a TV news crew to a compound filled with suicide bombers that is being raided by ED-209 drones created by OmniCorp. The mercenaries report to General Monroe of the United States Armed Forces in the Pentagon. He orders the ED-209 drones to move in and instructs the news crew to go live and film the raid.

The footage is aired simultaneously to an interview between General Monroe and TV personality Pat Novak (Samuel L. Jackson), which Monroe praises the ED-209 drones and OmniCorp's contract with the Pentagon. Meanwhile, in Iran, a bomber leaves his wife and his 10-year-old son hidden in a secret area of the compound and confronts an ED-209 drone, who shoots him dead before he can detonate his bomb vest. The man's son races out of the compound to help his father and is executed by the ED-209 drone as well. Monroe orders the crew to cut away.

In Detroit, police officers Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) and Jack Lewis (Michael K. Williams) are pursuing mobster Antoine Vallon and his men. During the chase, another police cruiser shoots their tires, allowing Vallon and his men to escape. Though Lewis views this as an accident, Murphy is convinced Vallon has bribed the cops to help him get away.

At OmniCorp's headquarters, roboticist Dr. Robert Norton (Gary Oldman) studies the development of a chimpanzee who has received bionic implants. Norton has created a program that allows him to control the chimpanzee's body movements by intercepting and analyzing his brain patterns, manipulating the chimp into believing he's in control of his own body when he actually isn't.

In Detroit, Murphy reports the incident during Vallon's pursuit to Chief of Police Karen Dean (Marianne Jean-Baptiste). She says Murphy is a good cop, but she can't do anything unless he has proof. Returning home, Murphy meets his wife, Ellen (Abbie Cornish), and their son, David. Murphy and David play videogames together, and Ellen later comforts Murphy, telling him he's a good man.

At OmniCorp, Norton attends a meeting where the company's CEO, Raymond Sellers (Michael Keaton), is informed by his lawyer, Liz Kline (Jennifer Ehle), that footage of the ED-209 drone murdering a child was covered up, but it can't happen again, or their entire program and contracts with the government would be in jeopardy. Tom Pope (Jay Baruchel), the head of marketing, has been preassuring Sellers to bring their technology to the homefront, and Norton then suggests that they create a scapegoat that could have the blame for the programming glitches pinned on him should they happen again.

In Detroit, Murphy and Lewis learn that Vallon is hidden in a local abandoned warehouse and head there alone after reinforcements don't appear. Upon entering the warehouse, they are surprised to learn Vallon's men were waiting for them, and Lewis runs away, leaving Murphy alone. He is captured and beaten by Vallon's men, and injected with a mysterious substance. Vallon and his men then aim their guns at Murphy. Lewis hears the shotgun blasts and returns only to find Murphy's mutilated remains: a half-torso with one attached arm and the head.

In the hospital, Ellen is visited by Kline, who convinces her that OmniCorp's Project RoboCop is Murphy's only chance of survival. Ellen signs the papers transfering Murphy's custody to OmniCorp. Norton rebuilds Murphy's robotic interskeleton and wires his brain to the program that he previously used on the chimpanzee. The "prototype" is then moved to OmniCorp's Chinese division, where RoboCop 1.0 is created.

Pope conduts market research on RoboCop 1.0's appearance by asking inmates of local prisons in Detroit to rate how threatning he is. When the feedback is negative, the scientists use Pope's notes to build RoboCop 2.0, a fully functional early design. RoboCop 2.0 is trained by ex-Marine Maddox (Jackie Earle Haley) and displays his strenght, speed, agility and stamina by completing a massive obstacle race in a OmniCorp test site in record time.

Adjustments are made to the exoskeleton, leading to the creation of RoboCop 3.0, that is deployed to South Africa to disband a terrorist cell. Norton and his men monitor RoboCop's performance, and Sellers instructs Norton to force RoboCop to shoot a civilian to evaluate his emotional response. Norton confirms that Murphy feels guilt over what he perceives as his own mistake, and Sellers gives the order to "finish the product".

RoboCop 4.0 is created. He has a "Sleeper Mode", where his exoskeleton is programmed to have a blue-ish/grey-ish tint, emulating a police officer's dress blues, and a "Battle Mode", in which the plates are reinforced with bulletproof padding and become a black-tintet tactical gear for more infiltration. Throughout the process, Ellen and David request access to Murphy as they were promised by Kline, but it is continuously denied. Lewis, feeling guilty for abandoning Murphy and blaming himself for his predictment, takes up arms to help them, and, in the process, becomes a surrogate father for David.

With RoboCop completed, Norton connects Murphy's mind to OmniCorp's worldwide surveillance system, downloading records of all known registered criminals in Murphy's head. The sensorial overload of brutal crimes commited throughout the planet is too much for Murphy, and he begins to overload. Norton interrupts the process, and Sellers instructs Norton to reduce Murphy's emotions so he'll become more effective.

When RoboCop is finally reinstated to the Detroit Police Department, he is a borderline emotionless automaton under Norton's control, and initially drives his family away, resulting in Ellen becoming closer to Lewis. Murphy monitors their activities through OmniCorp's CCTV cameras, and his emotions begin to push through OmniCorp's control.

After a series of arrests as RoboCop, Murphy goes after Vallon, and learns that he was hired by Sellers to lure Murphy into a trap and mutilate him so OmniCorp could use Murphy for Project RoboCop. They had selected him as the perfect candidate, but knew he wouldn't accept by his own. Murphy also learns that OmniCorp intents to create more RoboCops, capitalizing on the popularity boost that Murphy's performance will cause among police officers.

When Murphy becomes too big a liability and Norton realizes he is beginning to resit OmniCorp's control, Sellers deploys a group of ED-209 drones to ambush and destroy RoboCop in Old Town, but RoboCop is able to outstmart and defeat them, marching towards OmniCorp's headquarters, where only one thing stands between him and the men who ruined his life: The ED-210 robotic unit, a prototype upgrade of the ED-209 design, and RoboCop's greatest challenge yet.

If this script info is correct, it's even worse than I feared.

I fail to understand what they're doing with these changes. Let me see if I get this straight:

In the original, Lewis was a kick-a$$, take-charge woman who's responsible for teaching Murphy the ropes in Old Detroit. She's the one who actively rushes to Murphy's defense in the first Boddicker encounter in the steel mill (and is only impeded because she runs into a dead end), and sticks with Murphy throughout the film (and the trilogy), even when the other officers have all gone on strike. Now we have a Lewis who's a guy, who runs away when the crime lord shoots Murphy (off-screen), and later decides to move in on Murphy's widow and her son. What?

The point of Murphy's death is nullified. In the original, he's mercilessly gunned-down on-screen, with the villains taunting and toying with him all the way, and we get to see his final moments as the trauma team desperately tries to save him. Everyone and everything he ever loved is lost, and he doesn't understand why until later in the film when he begins to reclaim his humanity and achieves catharsis by brutally stopping Boddicker and his crew. Now we have a still-living Murphy who gets plopped into the suit and becomes more robotic as time passes...what?

I don't understand why the filmmakers think adding more ED-209's is going to be more threatening, considering the entire franchise (even the original) reduced them from a overzealous force that would never stop until you were dead to a buggy joke of a machine. We had the absurdity of the boardroom scene with Kinney, the 209 screaming like a stuck pig when it fell down the stairs, and the lone unit stationed in front of OCP being reduced to "walking scrap" after a single Cobra shot. The third film made it so that they could be reprogrammed by kids, and acted like puppy-dogs. Now, the only thing they do is shoot and shoot some more. Boring.

Murphy's character arc in the original worked so well because he was, literally and figuratively, being "stripped down" as the film progressed. You saw pieces of him finally being revealed - his surprised expression through his visor, being shot up by the police department, removing the helmet and seeing himself, and being stabbed through the chest by Boddicker. You rooted for him because he was a tragic figure put into that suit by extenuating circumstances, and you wanted him to succeed in spite of how injured he was. Now we've got a "super-Robocop" that apparently goes around beating the hell out of entire units of drones without the human aspects? What?

Any installment of the franchise that has been PG-13 has, at best, been prone to comic book-esque plotlines and off-screen/ineffectual violence (Prime Directives) and, at worst, an excuse to sell lots of toys and neuter the themes of the original (3, The Series). Considering how badly the movies and series were botched after the first, I don't have much hope of this being anything other than a cash-in on the name and yet another remake that is shoveled out without respecting and understanding what made the original so great.

Count me out of this remake.

 

[dark_b]

are you angry that they are remaking the movie or that they are not making the same movie?

i am not happy that they are remaking the movie. but if they are changing it at least it will not be the same movie with updated effects.

Lewis is a guy? oh. f. them. we already have problems not having badass female characters. and they change it to a guy?

 

[Nathan]

Lewis is a guy? oh. f. them. we already have problems not having badass female characters. and they change it to a guy?

Ok, now that is the first real disappointing news for me.

 

[B]

I have to say, I'm not digging Robocop's new & "improved" look for the reboot..

One of the main reasons is I personally feel with the exception of the helmet it looks like an Iron Man suit that has been spray painted black.

I've no problem whatsoever with a change/update of the look of Robocop at all, however personally I think they could have done a far better job of even giving the general 1987 design a little bit of a sleaker improvement.

 

[ChickenScratch]

It's actually a Toyota Venza:
http://www.flagworld.com/roadtests/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/01-2010-Toyota-Venza.jpg

I disagree. It looks like a Venza except it's got the wrong fog lamp inserts at the bottom of the bumper. Besides, all the cars in the first Robo were Fords. So this being a Lincoln (a Ford division) makes sense. I'm not saying the pic I posted was an 3xact match, but same hood if you remove the radiator because we are to assume it's electric. But it's also same lights down to the fog lamps.

 

[Super Kal]

Except your point was citing that without the original color scheme, Robocop is just your typical 'cybernetic' suit/movie.

And that's just absurd.

to me, it does... if you put it up against other robotic movies, you wouldn't even know it was Robocop unless someone told you first.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Well I really like what I read in that script overview, to me taking the concept and doing something new with it is preferable to a shot by shot style remake, it really sounds like it's own beast to me.

As for the design, I think we need to see a post-CGI look at the suit to see if it looks more metallic, but the roboitcness of Robocop will come from the performance as it did with the original.

 

[Galactus123]

This will suck if it will be PG-13. Only thing that can save this is a good story and the old theme music:

 

[carlosbealerto]

In the original, Lewis was a kick-a$$, take-charge woman who's responsible for teaching Murphy the ropes in Old Detroit. She's the one who actively rushes to Murphy's defense in the first Boddicker encounter in the steel mill (and is only impeded because she runs into a dead end)

Dude, I don't know what movie you watched, but in RoboCop, Lewis saw Murphy getting slaughtered and didn't do **** about it. She was hiding from a perfect spot to shoot the thugs from the side- in fact they show her POV for a few seconds. She was armed, and didn't do anything. She chickened out (understandably- she was outnumbered).

Listen, the original Robocop won't be matched. Not even close. That's a fact. I'm just glad we're getting something better than all those awful sequels, and so should you. But I suggest watching the original one more time, and don't be (so) biased because of the nostalgia factor.

 

[carlosbealerto]

Lewis had a fence blocking her way:

Dude are you serious?!?!?! Please look at the video- SHE HAS A CLEAR, PERFECT SHOT!!!- if anything, that "fence" that you talk about is the perfect cover!!!

 

[carlosbealerto]

not only a clear shot, but a clear HEAD shot for EVERY guy in there, I might add...

 

[Symbiotic]

Cinemax did a trilogy marathon last night. Watched all of the first one, the second half of the second one, and didn't bother with the third. Why Dr. Faxx didn't die in #2 is beyond me. *****.

 

[Britannic]

Now he has a cape! t:

 

[obin_gam]

Arise young Murphy, from now on you shall be known as Darth... Robo!

 

[grout]

Geeze, im not coming back in here for this topic,, If your already reading scripts.. seeing armor etc.. The movie will almost be no fun.. To many a spoiler and premature judgments in here to have any surprise when released.

 

[dark_b]

they will have to realese an official pic in october.

 

[obin_gam]

I have a feeling they're gonna release a pic of the social mode soon to keep the intimidation mode a bit more mysterious.

 

[scifiwolf]

Grew up with Robocop. Loved it. Watched it again for the first time in forever this weekend. Holds up okay, but incredibly dated. Classic 80's action flick, complete with nudity and swearing. Plot's not all that complex, which in this case is a bad thing. Not very hard to put pieces together as to what's going on. The summary of the remake, if accurate, strikes me as a little more intriguing. The performances make up for it to a certain degree, however. Though campy and over the top, they do pack a lot of personality.

As for the nuts-and-bolts of the design (no pun intended), I love what we're seeing. I honestly can't understand the level of whining. Set photos aren't going to show the suit as it's intended to look while lit, in action, on a big screen. Oh no, his hand is showing too! So what? His mouth is showing. What's the freaking difference? He's not a robot anyway. He's got a s**t ton of prostheses. To me, that would naturally lend itself to looking like a suit. Hey, that's what we're getting! It makes sense!

Damn, I'm getting madder and madder writing this. Bottom line, people need to ease up the reactions. It's not bad at all. The original isn't so immaculate as to warrant such reverence by the filmmakers as is being demanded by some of you. This is a few out-of-context peeks that are hardly the whole story. Chill out.

 

[Britannic]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...e-Malick-film-bad-released-big-screen-UK.html

Cornish superwoman stars in new Robocop movie

Behind every superhero, there stands a super woman — and in the new RoboCop movie, that woman is Abbie Cornish.

The Australian actress stars in director Jose Padilha’s mammoth remake of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 thriller, which will start filming soon.

It’s about a Detroit detective whose shot-up body is rebuilt to create the ultimate crime-fighter.

‘I’m Mrs RoboCop,’ Abbie told me in Toronto. ‘I play RoboCop’s wife Ellen, and I sign the consent papers that allow the corporation to turn my husband into a law-enforcement cyborg.’

She explained that Ellen’s a psychologist who helps her husband, played by Joel Kinnaman, cope with the mental stresses caused by his transformation at the hands of a team of scientists led by Gary Oldman.

In fact, I also bumped into Oldman and Kinnaman as they checked out some of the movies being shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, including Martin McDonagh’s cool, darkly comic Seven Psychopaths — in which Abbie also appears, with Colin Farrell and Sam Rockwell.

Oldman said the RoboCop production would run well into the New Year, but most of the cast would be able to come and go.

‘But not him,’ he added, pointing to Kinnaman. ‘He’s in every scene, so he’ll be here for months.’
Abbie added that the film’s cast and crew were having what she called ‘full-on’ rehearsals.

‘We’re all there: the actors, writers, cinematographer and editor in a room, going through every line of dialogue and changing things.

‘It’s a full-on collaboration, which is unusual on a big studio film like this.’

 

[dark_b]

As for the nuts-and-bolts of the design (no pun intended), I love what we're seeing. I honestly can't understand the level of whining. Set photos aren't going to show the suit as it's intended to look while lit, in action, on a big screen. Oh no, his hand is showing too! So what? His mouth is showing. What's the freaking difference? He's not a robot anyway. He's got a s**t ton of prostheses. To me, that would naturally lend itself to looking like a suit. Hey, that's what we're getting! It makes sense!
.

so how can you like the suit when its a set photo with bad lighting?

if people can not complaing about the suit then noone else can praise it from the set photos. noone who hates is asking other how can they like it. yet as always on SHH almost everyone who likes it is insulting,attacking,wondering... the ones who dont like it. but thats the best part of SHH right? thats what makes SHH fun

 

[DoomsdayApex]

It's SHH. So, the majority reaction is always going to be mixed-to-negative when arriving to new costumes/suits. Don't get me wrong, it's justifiable once in a while but a portion of fans will always tend to be overcritical.

If it's not the 'original', then it's generic.

 

[Solidus]

Ok, now that is the first real disappointing news for me.

No, it needs to be this way. I'm not against Lewis as a strong woman, but to me her role in the original was to bring the humanity out in Robocop, and Lewis in this one does it as well but in a much different way that invokes the story of his family which is a primary point in this film.

However, you can only have so much, and with this Robocop it focuses primarily on the family aspect, and what he loses. The original did not. Lewis in this script really ties his cop life back to his family since they are close friends and Lewis becomes involved heavily with his family as he is "rebuilt".

Having her as a bad ass woman, would not push the story along that they are telling and just not work. Not that I'm against having bad ass women in films, it's just with this one, Lewis is a character that moves the story along in another direction.

That is what I like about this reboot, it's not just a copycat of the original, it is looking at the story from another view point.

 

[so-tite]

Grew up with Robocop. Loved it. Watched it again for the first time in forever this weekend. Holds up okay, but incredibly dated. Classic 80's action flick, complete with nudity and swearing. Plot's not all that complex, which in this case is a bad thing. Not very hard to put pieces together as to what's going on. The summary of the remake, if accurate, strikes me as a little more intriguing. The performances make up for it to a certain degree, however. Though campy and over the top, they do pack a lot of personality.

As for the nuts-and-bolts of the design (no pun intended), I love what we're seeing. I honestly can't understand the level of whining. Set photos aren't going to show the suit as it's intended to look while lit, in action, on a big screen. Oh no, his hand is showing too! So what? His mouth is showing. What's the freaking difference? He's not a robot anyway. He's got a s**t ton of prostheses. To me, that would naturally lend itself to looking like a suit. Hey, that's what we're getting! It makes sense!

Damn, I'm getting madder and madder writing this. Bottom line, people need to ease up the reactions. It's not bad at all. The original isn't so immaculate as to warrant such reverence by the filmmakers as is being demanded by some of you. This is a few out-of-context peeks that are hardly the whole story. Chill out.

Actually, it's the opposite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN9hhmVByqY

In the physical sense, RoboCop was almost entirely robot vs. actual human.

...going further:

The movie's depiction of Murphy's struggles in reasserting his humanity also deals with themes of identity. This is even touched upon in the cyborg's construction. On the Robocop: 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition DVD, Paul Sammon states:

"Rob Bottin and Paul Verhoeven, and Ed Neumeier had all come up with a concept that there would be such a potential for psychological disruption. Even if you had supposedly wiped someone's memories and emotions they'd still might have some kind of residual humanity where if they'd looked at themselves as a complete robot with no relation to their past organic form, they'd completely freak out and have a psychotic breakdown. So the idea was that surgeons had literally skinned off Alex Murphy's face and then placed it on the cyborg. So it's not like they transplanted his head, they just took his face off and laid it on the cyborg, and that was to give him his own little sense of identity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboCop

The original RoboCop was basically a brain-in-a-jar.

It's like this new design completely misses the point entirely.

 

[Kane52630]

It's SHH. So, the majority reaction is always going to be mixed-to-negative when arriving to new costumes/suits. Don't get me wrong, it's justifiable once in a while but a portion of fans will always tend to be overcritical.

If it's not the 'original', then it's generic.

Pretty much. It's a shame, I really dig the new design and I still love the original.