Last year it was announced that District 9 director Neill Blomkamp would be directing a Robocop reboot starring Peter Weller as the titular character. Sadly, today, after months of build-up, Blomkamp took to Twitter to announce that he is stepping away from the film.
Off Robocop. I am shooting new horror/thriller and MGM can’t wait/ need to shoot Robocop now. Excited to watch it in theaters with other fans. N
— Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) August 15, 2019
As you can tell from the tweet, it seems that scheduling conflicts are the main cause for the Chappie director’s departure. Last year, there was quite a bit of sadness around the net when we all learned that Blomkamp wouldn’t be directing an Alien film. This was later confirmed by Ridley Scott whose Alien: Covenant film derailed the project.
While Blomkamp’s last film, Chappie, didn’t do so well at the box office, his latest work, a set of self-financed short films by Oats Studios gained a lot of attention. The directed seemed a perfect fit for the film and mentioned that both District 9 and Elysium were heavily inspired by the original sci-fi action film.
The synopsis for RoboCop Returns reads, “Anarchy reigns and the fate of Detroit hangs in the balance as RoboCop makes his triumphant return to fight crime and corruption.”
The original R-rated RoboCop from 1987 is considered a classic of the sci-fi genre and went on to spawn many sequels, most of which were disappointing. RoboCop Returns is a direct sequel to the first film and will subsequently ignore all the sequels and reboots that followed.
