According to film journalist Jeff Sneider and confirmed by press outlets like Deadline, critical wonderboy director Neill Blomkamp (director of District 9, Elysium, and Chappie) is working on a new project: RoboCop Returns. At the time of writing, it’s been confirmed that this new film will be a sequel that sort of acts as a soft reboot. Justin Rhodes (writer of both the upcoming Terminator reboot and the Green Lantern Corps film that's still in development over at DC) has been chosen to pen a revision of a screenplay written by franchise creators Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner (written ages before comics legend Frank Miller was brought on to do RoboCop 2 instead).
Personally, I think there’s a 50/50 chance of this being any good. As much as I love the original (seriously, it's in my top 25 favorites), the RoboCop franchise as a whole is a very mixed bag. Starting out with an all-time classic and a pretty decent sequel, things took a massive nosedive when RoboCop 3 hit theaters in 1993 with its inferior PG-13 rated anarchy and an even worse excuse for a reboot about two decades later. Outside of a couple decent comics and videogames, there isn’t much of value to this venture; yet, I’m not going to write this new movie off because I’ve been burned in the past.
They’ve got some talented people for this latest picture. While I remain skeptical about who they’ve selected to write it, I’m curious to see what he does with this film and how a filmmaker like Neill Blomkamp will work with that. I’ll go on the record by saying I find Blomkamp’s work to be a bit overhyped in the grand scheme of things. Still, I admire that he is one of the few directors willing to work big ideas into the average sci-fi popcorn flick. He’s proven to critics and studios that he’s a go-to guy for entertaining science fiction action pictures with heavy social commentary underlining them. So, that and his statement regarding his love for the original along with hints at what he plans to do with this new film are reassuring. As for what a new sequel could entail, your guess is as good as mine. I’ll keep an open mind about this upcoming feature and I hope you all do the same.
Personally, I think there’s a 50/50 chance of this being any good. As much as I love the original (seriously, it's in my top 25 favorites), the RoboCop franchise as a whole is a very mixed bag. Starting out with an all-time classic and a pretty decent sequel, things took a massive nosedive when RoboCop 3 hit theaters in 1993 with its inferior PG-13 rated anarchy and an even worse excuse for a reboot about two decades later. Outside of a couple decent comics and videogames, there isn’t much of value to this venture; yet, I’m not going to write this new movie off because I’ve been burned in the past.
They’ve got some talented people for this latest picture. While I remain skeptical about who they’ve selected to write it, I’m curious to see what he does with this film and how a filmmaker like Neill Blomkamp will work with that. I’ll go on the record by saying I find Blomkamp’s work to be a bit overhyped in the grand scheme of things. Still, I admire that he is one of the few directors willing to work big ideas into the average sci-fi popcorn flick. He’s proven to critics and studios that he’s a go-to guy for entertaining science fiction action pictures with heavy social commentary underlining them. So, that and his statement regarding his love for the original along with hints at what he plans to do with this new film are reassuring. As for what a new sequel could entail, your guess is as good as mine. I’ll keep an open mind about this upcoming feature and I hope you all do the same.
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