RoboCop remake in 2013

Because we might as well just have a thread for it.

The Hollywood machine has been trying to make a new version of Robocop for ages, the closest they got before this was when Darren Aronofsky signed to make his version, but left the project due MGM's financial issues. There were some rumors that Aronofsky's script was going to be adapted as a comic, but nothing came from that.

Then enters José Padilha, director of both The Elite Squad movies, who signed to direct, and after a long list of rumored actors for the main role (including Chris Pine, Michael Fassbender, Edward Norton and Russell Crowe), Joel Kinnaman (Holder from The Killing) was chosen to portray Alex Murphy aka Robocop.

Other announced cast members include Hugh Laurie as the CEO of Omni Corp; Abbie Cornish as Murphy's wife; Samuel L. Jackson as Pat Novak, a media mogul of great influence in this setting; and Gary Oldman as Norton, the scientist in charge of the Robocop project.

The movie is to be released on summer of 2013, and we already got promo art from the past 2012 Licensing Expo◊, a viral site, and a viral video:

Any thoughts? I usually don't get too worked up with remakes or reboots, unless they astray too much from the original material not because it benefits the story but because the makers want to feel edgy and relevant (like that dumb TMNT project produced by Michael Bay that thankfully is frozen by the moment), but Robocop is a very good movie that behind all the action and gore worked very well as a satire, and has surprising aged very well, so they announce this is actually going to happen, and I don't know, I'm trying to keep an open mind here.

edited 7th Jul '12 7:58:34 PM by Dream_Huntress

Not really all that much to make a decision on, just yet.

I wonder if the omnicorp site in the teaser (it's a real website) will be updated with the menu options actually leading to something as time goes on.

Eh, I thought the first one was pretty boring and middle-of-the-road. If someone thinks they can do better, go for it.

Robo Cop's new design is atrocious.

Well, I might as well do it if nobody else is going to. Ahem:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Though...Hugh Laurie? Really? Berty Wooster is chairman of OCP?

edited 8th Jul '12 5:29:25 PM by InverurieJones

Jeeves & Wooster is the shit and so is Hugh Laurie.

Personally, I'm excited. I love the original, but I'm all for seeing how they update it, and I've liked most of what I've heard so far.

The only thing that makes me interested in this version is the director, to see if he'll do anything like The Elite Squad.

edited 9th Jul '12 5:17:02 AM by osias

@Napoleon: There's an image of the new Robo Cop design floating around or something?

At least they didn't change ED-209's design.

IMO, the real problem with remaking Robocop is that OCP's activities don't actually look unreasonable as responses to Detroit's problems anymore. . .

I think the director has plenty of experience to make OCP be evil in fresh ways.

Don't people in Detroit watch the original and get all nostalgic for the Good Old Days?

They're making some promotion at San Diego Comic Con, just like everybody else. Sometimes I do wonder if viral marketing is effective, when it comes to big budget productions I mean. Also, they're gonna keep calling the company Omni Corp.

edited 11th Jul '12 9:00:35 PM by Dream_Huntress

Lol at ED 209 standing and taking a tank shot and then returning fire.

Jackie Earle Haley is joining the cast, not as the villain mind you, but as Maddox, the guy who gives Robocop military training. Bummer.

Also, the article mentions Jay Baruchel is being mentioned for a role, can't really imagine what role he could fit in.

Edit: Jay Baruchel has been officially casted, as “the head of marketing for Omnicorp, the company that is building the police cyborg.” Wait, so does that mean he's their version of Bob Morton?

edited 25th Jul '12 4:29:03 PM by Dream_Huntress

Two more actors are in talks to join the cast: Jennifer Ehle for new character Liz Kline, and Michael Kenneth Williams for Murphy's partner.

My vague memories of Robo Cop say it was good. This seems good. A shiny Robo Cop seems like something a marketing director would come up with.

They can do what they want, as long as there is lots and lots of fire.

No, I'm not flaming the movie, I will legitimately be pleased if there is a high concentration of fire-related deaths delivered by Robocop in this reboot.

Me, I'm kinda hoping (though not to the point of "if it's not there I'll kill myself) there will be some mutant-targeting Car Fu, if for no other reason than to play the eventual DVD in slow-motion to watch the head roll over the vehicle.

(Yeah, I'm weird like that. )

Okay, apparently the script for the remake leaked, and a writer from HitFix was twitting about it, and apparently it's bad, the guy says it makes the Total Recall remake look like a masterpiece in comparision. Spoilers in the link of course.

Dammit, if they wanted to have their own designs, fine, but that shot at the original Robo design seems just way too low.

The problem with all this is it could easily become an Iron Man knock-off.

Wait and see what the first trailer looks like, I guess.

edited 12th Aug '12 7:10:28 PM by TheBatPencil

Well, Drew McWeeny the writer tends to be a pissant, so I'd rather not listen to him...and furthermore, I think he's jumping the gun a bit. Taking them to task for having a guy watching another MGM movie is stupid. Other films do that sort of thing all the time.

What's more, Robo's final design hasn't even been unveiled yet, nor do we know what draft of the script is being used.

And why does he say "once it stops the winky-winky crap it's not terrible"? The original film was damn near built on that. And then, he goes on to say "ouchouchouchouch"? You can't have it both ways.

Wait, so they're moving his brain around to new bodies? Awesome, that's the kind of stuff I like to see in my cyborg based protagonists. The cheesy references seem good.

Another casting news: Marianne Jean-Baptiste joins the cast as Detroit Police Chief, Karen Dean.