Merrick here...
THIS piece over at Vulture indicates that Nick Schenk - who scripted GRAN TORINO for Clint Eastwood - is making a run at scripting MGM's long-in-development ROBOCOP remake, still under the guidance of ELITE SQUAD helmer José Padilha.
This project has been going through the mill for a while now, most visibly with Darren Aronofsky attached. Will Padilha and Schenk be the team to finally get this going?
Paul Verhoeven's 1987 ROBOCOP is a classic of ultra-violence, action, and social lampooning. ROBOCOP 2, from EMPIRE STRIKES BACK director Irvin Kirshner, had some inspired edgy moments (the jerky ,drug dealing kid) but never came together as fully as its predecessor. ROBOCOP 3, despite my general appreciation of director/writer Fred Dekker and scripter Frank Miller, didn't do anything for me at all. Although, it's hard not to find a touch of appreciation for a robo Ninja...
In THIS Telegraph piece, remake director Padilha expresses his desire to uphold the franchise's socially satirical nature...
“The satire element of RoboCop is, I think, needed today,” he tells me. “That kind of social, aggressive satire I haven’t seen done well in movies lately. And it’s almost like the politics and violence in the world is asking for this: 'Someone please make some satire now!' So we’re going to keep that edge.”
... which might be an interesting and controversial move given that today's social climate is infinitely more sissified and politically correct than the world Verhoeven was dealing with back in 1987. If Padilha and Schenk retain the first adventure's "edge"...and actually understand what Verhoeven and scripters Edward Neumeierand Michael Miner were going for with their original picture...and if the studio is wise enough to NOT castrate their efforts...then PERHAPS they'll be onto something with this.
But that's a lot of "ifs" and "ands," so we'll see...
--- follow Merrick on Twitter ! ---
