Neill Blomkamp Is Directing A New RoboCop

Well, Neill Blomkamp didn’t get to make his Alien film, so according to Deadline, he’s moved onto another franchise, RoboCop! Now, I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t they just remake it? Yes, but like with his abandoned Alien film, this new RoboCop movie will serve as a direct sequel to the original, and it will be called RoboCop Returns.

The writers of the original film, Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner are producing, and their original script for a sequel will be rewritten by Justin Rhodes. This is the plot synopsis as posted by Deadline:

“Anarchy reigns and the fate of Detroit hangs in the balance as RoboCop makes his triumphant return to fight crime and corruption.”

OK, so not a lot to work with, but it’s about what you’d expect from a film this early in development.

Neill Blomkamp has not been looked at very favorably for a long time, seemingly never living up to the promise he showed with District 9. I honestly don’t mind most of his work, but I don’t love anything he’s done. I’m probably one of the few people who kind of liked Chappie. He makes gorgeous sci-fi films that are driven by big ideas, and are grungy as hell, so even if his execution is often lacking, they do scratch an itch. Plus, RoboCop is far more his wheelhouse than Alien. I mean, literally everything he’s done has involved people getting transformed or physically altered in some way, so this would fall in line with those.

My big hope is that the studio will allow Blomkamp to do his thing, unlike what they did with José Padilha, where they basically micromanaged him to death when he did the RoboCop remake. I also hope it retains the satirical edge of the original, and has something interesting to say about our times. With stuff like police brutality, all the stuff with ICE, there’s plenty of things that can be explored here.

We’ll keep you folks updated as we find out more!