Back in January saw it first reported that a Robocop sequel is in the works, and now it’s announced it will have director Neill Blomkamp on board to helm the flick.
MGM Studios announced the news, with Neill Blomkamp offering on Twitter, “Very excited about this.”
The new movie has been described as a sequel to the first Robocop, a sequel that the original writers intended, Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner, who are on board as executive producers and are actively involved.
The new Robocop movie is also being written by Justin Rhodes, who co-wrote the new Terminator movie, which interestingly enough has also been said to be a sequel to T2 and is ignoring the Terminator movies following T2.
Neill Blomkamp is a science-fiction director known for District 9, Elysium and Chappie.
The original RoboCop was released in 1987 and starred Peter Weller as officer Alex J. Murphy who gets shot while on patrol and is near death so he unwittingly becomes subjected to the RoboCop program where his mind is supposed to have been wiped as his body is transformed into a cyborg; however, the cyborg retains memories and emotions of Alex Murphy, and he becomes RoboCop.
“The original definitely had a massive effect on me as a kid,” Blomkamp told Deadline. “I loved it then and it remains a classic in the end of 20th Century sci-fi catalog, with real meaning under the surface. Hopefully that is something we can get closer to in making of a sequel. That is my goal here. What I connected to as a kid has evolved over time. At first, the consumerism, materialism and Reaganomics, that ’80s theme of America on steroids, came through most strongly. But As I’ve gotten older, the part that really resonated with me is identity, and the search for identity. As long as the human component is there, a good story can work in any time period, it’s not locked into a specific place in history. What’s so cool about RoboCop is that like good Westerns, sci-fi films and dramas, the human connection is really important to a story well told. What draws me now is someone searching for their lost identity, taken away at the hands of people who are benefiting from it, and seeing his memory jogged by events. That is most captivating. The other thing I am excited by is the chance to work again with Justin Rhodes. He has added elements that are pretty awesome, to a sequel that was set in the world of Verhoeven. This is a movie I would love to watch.”
