Back in August, we learned the unfortunate news that Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Chappie) had departed RoboCop Returns, a reboot of the RoboCop franchise for MGM that's set to be a decades-later sequel to Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 classic.
Our hopes were insanely high for the reboot, as Blomkamp had been teasing a hard "R" rating, a return to the original RoboCop suit and Peter Weller possibly reprising the role of the titular character, but sadly, it seems that has been thrown to the wind.
Now, MGM and Orion have revealed that Abe Forsythe, who directed the wonderful zom-com Little Monsters, will now be sitting in the director's chair for the return of OCP's finest.
The Wrap reports that the project is a long-dormant sequel that had been planned by the original 1987 film’s screenwriters Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner, but was canceled when director Paul Verhoeven declined to direct the project and a WGA strike in 1988 followed.
Justin Rhodes, who wrote the surprisingly great sequel Terminator: Dark Fate, penned the script for Robocop Returns with Forsythe, rewriting Neumeier and Miner's script. Neumeier and Miner will serve as producers.
The original RoboCop follows a Detroit police officer (Weller) who is shot and nearly killed, but is resurrected as an android police officer by a powerful corporation. The film is considered one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all-time, earning three Oscar nominations and winning one for its special effects while earning praise for its satire and exploration of capitalism, law enforcement and corruption.
Honestly, anything will be better than the mediocre 2014 remake...Here's to hoping that Forsythe and crew can deliver a sequel that captures the tone and charm of the original!
And if you're having a bad day, you can watch RoboCop shoot that creep in the dick in the clip below!