Aronofsky's Robocop In Question Again

When reports hit that Darren Aronofsky wouldn't discuss the Robocop reboot so he could spend his time promoting The Wrestler earlier this year (despite having been on the project since mid-2008), Peter and I were both in agreement that he wouldn't make it when everything was said and done.

Of course, there have been "Is he or isn't he?" rumblings with the most recent questions being raised by CHUD's Devin Faraci (right here) which was quickly followed by a rebuttal from AICN big-cheese Harry Knowles.

Meanwhile, MGM pushed the release date back from 2010 to 2011. And recently Black Swan (a project that Aronofsky had previously set up at Universal that ultimately fell apart) started picking up steam again when Natalie Portman came on-board.

Now the trades report that Swan has all but assured its financing with production looking to start up this fall.

So what's this mean for Darren and Officer Murphy? Apparently the studio is quietly looking at other directors as potential "feelers." You know, "just in case" Aronofsky opts out. Sounds more like they already know that he's out and now MGM is scrambling to find a replacement.

And that's a damn shame because it seemed like the perfect melding of acclaimed director working with the right commercial property. Think Nolan on Batman, De Palma on The Untouchables, Scorsese on The Departed, etc. To be fair, it's never flat-out said that he's not directing Robocop. But I'm not holding my breath either-way.