Robocop Has Its Director: Jose Padilha
Wed, March 2, 2011 
"TOLDJA" reports MGM has tapped on the shoulder of Brazilian director Jose Padilha for the Robocop remake.
A sci-fi/action project drawing disdain reaction from many during its development, resulting in a studio making the bold call to hand the reigns over to a commercially-unproven, but acclaimed non-American filmmaker. Sound like déjà vu? That's exactly what happened twenty-five years ago with Paul Verhoeven and the original Robocop and look at the results from that experiment.
As much as I don't care for the idea of a Robocop revamp on face-value, we're talking about a property that said everything it had to with one movie.
Similar to Ghostbusters a few years prior, an oddball project, that when pitched to people got confused if not unintentionally amused looks, became a big corporate asset after its surprisingly monster success. Then it became about the Saturday morning cartoons, toys, comics and, obviously, sequels – sequels that failed to capture the lightning in a bottle magic from its predecessor.
So many bad results followed from the '87 classic that truthfully I can't see the harm in revisiting it. As for Mr. Padilha, I'm forced to plead the fifth having not seen his films. Although his two Elite Squad films were huge, huge hits in his native Brazil also drawing high critical regards.
No, it's not Darren Aronosky (like it or not, he's made his bed siding with The Wolverine), but there's nothing to suggest Padilha isn't the "voice" necessary for a film like this to work.
Reader Comments (2)
Don't know the guys work but I wish him best of luck.
Aronofsky, that Wolverine film better be good!