Hell, yeah! Deadline has just announced that director Neill Blomkamp (DISTRICT 9) is developing a new installment in the ROBOCOP series along with MGM. Not only that, but evidently this new film is the TRUE sequel to ROBOCOP we were always supposed to get – but never did! It's called ROBOCOP RETURNS and Blomkamp jumped at the chance to do a ROBOCOP that harkens back to and picks up the storyline from the original film.
Blomkamp:
The original definitely had a massive effect on me as a kid. 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.
Original writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner are producing and exec producing and Justin Rhodes (the new TERMINATOR flick) will rewrite the script that Neumeier and Miner wrote years ago. Neumeier on why this sequel wasn't made back in the 80's:
Verhoeven felt at the time that making one would be de classe and he wasn’t interested in the politics of a sequel. Then, the writers strike came along in 1988 and we were force majeured off the project. They brought in Frank Miller on a waiver. He wrote a draft and then another with Walon Green, and it got made by Irvin Kershner, who directed The Empire Strikes Back. I went off and did Startship Troopers with Paul.
This is some truly epic news and personally, I couldn't be happier that it's Blomkamp that MGM gave this new film over to. The man more than knows his way around a brutal and violent sci-fi flick, and at the moment I'm at a loss for thinking of a better director out there for this movie! Bring it on!!
How excited are YOU for ROBOCOP RETURNS?! Let us know below!