For a while there, it looked like Darren Aronofsky would be the man to reinvent RoboCop, but MGM’s financial struggles and issues with the tone saw the new version gunned down and seemingly left for dead. Well, MGM has new bosses on board, a fresh cash injection and, in the words of the former Alex P Murphy, “They’ll fix you. They fix… everything.” And part one of their plans to get the cyborg cop back on the beat? Approaching Brazilian director Jose Padilha to hoist the megaphone.
Padilha made a splash with gritty cop thriller** Elite Squad** and its sequel, which garnered plenty of praise, earned a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and raked in more cash at the Brazilian box office than Avatar. Since then, he’s been approached by Universal to make Robert Ludlum adaptation The Sigma Protocol, but that never quite came together.
Now, after talking to various directors including Robert Rodriguez and David Slade, MGM’s new chief executives Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum have decided that Padilha is the man to program new life into Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 classic.
And with a director close to signing on, a writer will now be targeted to work on the story under Padilha’s supervision. While we’re still not sure RoboCop needs a remake, and were sorry to see Aronofsky go, Padilha could be a solid second choice…