The RoboCop Returns film that was previously being developed by director Neill Blomkamp is moving forward with a new director. That director is Abe Forsythe, who directed Lupita Nyong’o in the zombie comedy Little Monsters.
Little Monsters was a pretty good zombie comedy that had some fun moments. I’m not really familiar with any of the director’s other work, so I’m not sure if he’s really right filmmaker for the job. We’ll just have to wait and see. But, I am disappointed that Neill Blomkamp isn’t directing it anymore. He dropped out of the project to focus on a horror film that he’s working on.
The film is still being developed as a direct sequel to the original movie that was released in 1987 by Orion. This movie is based on a script that was written years ago by RoboCop‘s original screenwriters Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner. They are also attached to produce RoboCop Returns. That movie never happened due to some issues. Justin Rhodes, who co-wrote the latest Terminator: Dark Fate, is rewriting that script.
When previously talking about the film, Neumeier talked about how this project came about, saying:
“We talked about it a couple of years back and I reminded [MGM] that we had written a very rough sequel back in 1988 which then was stopped by the writer’s strike, the same year. And they looked at it and they said ‘Oh, good!’, so we did some more work on that and then Neill Blomkamp found out about it and he said, ‘I have always wanted to do this, this is my dream project’ and MGM was very very pleased to get into business with him.”
The writer went on to talk to explain that Blomkamp’s goal for the film is to capture the same spirit of the original. He wants to direct the sequel as if Verhoeven had directed it right after RoboCop:
“Neill Blomkamp and his screenwriter Justin Rhodes have done a pass on the script we were writing on and they’re doing another one. It is a slightly different concept in some ways than we were originally doing. I don’t want to talk too much about it or somebody will call me and tell me to shut up, but we’re hopeful and I think Neill really really wants to make a good RoboCop movie. His idea is that it should be the proper Verhoeven… if Verhoeven had directed a movie right after RoboCop… I think that’s what he is trying to achieve and I hope he does. We’ll see what happens next.”
Hopefully, the director on the film has the same vision, because that the movie that I want to see… proper Verhoeven.
Source: THR