District 9 Director Neill Blomkamp to Helm RoboCop Returns

So many beloved movie series are getting remakes, remasters, and/or sequels these days: Terminator, The Predator, Alien(s), Star Wars, etc. Earlier this week MGM confirmed that another classic action movie will be joining that list and that it has a star-studded director. Deadline revealed that District 9 director and Oats Studio founder, Neill Blomkamp, will direct the newest installment in the RoboCop series, titled RoboCop returns.

When speaking to Deadline about the upcoming film, Blomkamp talked about the massive effect the original film had on him when he was a kid in 1987.

“I loved it then and it remains a classic in the end of 20th Century sci-fi catalog, with real meaning under the surface,” Blomkamp said. “Hopefully that is something we can get closer to in making of a sequel. That is my goal here.”

The director went on to explain how his views of the film have changed over time, and what made the film so special.

“At first, the consumerism, materialism and Reaganomics, that ’80s theme of America on steroids, came through most strongly. But As I’ve gotten older, the part that really resonated with me is identity, and the search for identity. As long as the human component is there, a good story can work in any time period, it’s not locked into a specific place in history. What’s so cool about RoboCop is that like good Westerns, sci-fi films and dramas, the human connection is really important to a story well told.”

He ended the interview by stating how excited he was to work with Justin Rhodes, who is co-writing the Terminator film that Tim Miller is shooting. Rhodes will work with RoboCop writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner, who will be producing and exec producing the new film. Neumeier and Miner apparently wrote a sequel script years ago that they will use as the basis for the RoboCop Returns, rewriting it with Rhodes.