After years of false starts and a metric ton of rumors, MGM has finally willed its RoboCop reboot into being, snagging Elite Squad helmer Jose Padilha to direct and more recently signing on Joel Kinnaman to star in the title role made famous by Peter Weller in the 1987 sci-fi/satire classic. Let it be known that painful desperation is one hell of a motivator. And although the movie has yet to commence shooting, MGM has found itself a distributor.
Deadline reports that Sony Pictures has signed on to bring Robocop to the masses. Sony and MGM partnering up isn’t too surprising; the two have joined together for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the upcoming (and apparently awesome) 21 Jump Street and most importantly, the return of 007 in this November’s Skyfall. Also there’s last summer’s Zookeeper. Yes, that movie happened, and no I refuse to let you ever forget it. EVER.
The tightrope the Robocop reboot is walking across is razor thin; make it too much like the original and it’ll come off as a crass cash grab that doesn’t justify its own existence. But meddle with the satire/hyperviolence formula too much and you strip away what made the original so damn good in the first place. It’s going to have to hit a particular sweet spot for this to be successful and while part of me wants to have faith (I’ve heard good things about the Elite Squad series), the other part of me wants to banish this movie back into development hell. But hey, at least it isn’t a musical; it’s like MGM would stoop that low with one of their older…oh, right.
Robocop reportedly begins shooting this summer.