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RoboCop Remake Still Uncertain, But Screenwriter Ed Neumeier is Excited

by Kevin Powers
April 28, 2008
Source: MTV

Folks holding their breath for a RoboCop remake: continue to do so. Despite bringing you word last month that MGM included a remake on their line-up for the fall/winter this year, there's been little mention beyond that flirty seven-letter inclusion in the March press release. With the scent still lingering, MTV caught up with RoboCop's original screenwriter, Ed Neumeier, who is all about bringing the cyborg lawdog back. "I would love to make a RoboCop movie. I actually have a lot of ideas about what we could do with RoboCop now. I think he's a very vital character at the moment." Keep in mind, there's been no further word from MGM on where the project stands.

While Neumeier's enthusiasm is great, his statement about the story's fittingness today seems a bit of stretch. RoboCop was more about corrupt corporations, the media, and straight-up justice. These police-level themes seem just a shadow of the larger political issues of today. But perhaps that's a good thing. Haven't we seen enough political/administration bullsh*t hit the big screen already? And insofar as remakes go, RoboCop seems right at home alongside Rambo, Rocky and other '80s classics experiencing a new life (just go look at Ken's nostalgic 80's piece).

But whether the story is timely or not, RoboCop was a pretty badass series that would be great to see again. As a young kid in the late '80s, the movies - there were two sequels - were pretty damn gritty and violent. (Did you know the film originally had an NC-17 rating, which was actually an X rating at the time?) I can't tell you how long the scene with the malfunctioning ED-209 stayed with me! So I wonder how far a modern day RoboCop would take the violence, given the filming and CGI advancements we have today.

Though Black Book's Paul Verhoeven directed the original, I doubt he'll back alongside the hopeful Neumeier when and/or if the time comes. Strangely, Verhoeven is authoring a biography on Jesus, which is due to be published in September. He's not exactly in the RoboCop headspace.

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