It’s exciting that MGM is currently developing a direct sequel to Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 science fiction action film RoboCop with co-creators Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner directly involved as their original sequel script (working title The Corporate Wars) and rewrite will be incorporated into the new project titled RoboCop Returns, which is now being overseen by director Neill Blomkamp (District 9) and screenwriter Justin Rhodes (Terminator, Green Lantern Corps.).
HN Entertainment’s CJ Paschall and Nicholas Whitcomb recently spoke with screenwriter, producer, and director Ed Neumeier earlier today in an exclusive interview about his body of work which turned to the subjects of RoboCop and his involvement with Blomkamp’s RocoCop Returns.
“Yes, I am a producer at the moment. We talked about it a couple of years back and I reminded them that we had written a very rough sequel back in 1988 which then was stopped by the writer’s strike, the same year. And they looked at it and they said ‘oh, good!’, so we did some more work on that and then Neill Blomkamp found out about it and he said ‘I have always wanted to do this, this is my dream project’ and MGM was very very pleased to get into business with him.”
“Ah, so they are, Neill Blomkamp and his screenwriter Justin Rhodes have done a pass on the script we were writing on and they’re doing another one. It is a slightly different concept in some ways than we were originally doing, Neill wants to do. I don’t want to talk too much about it or somebody will call me and tell me to shut up, but we’re hopeful and I think Neill really really wants to make a good RoboCop movie. His idea is that it should be the proper Verhoeven [Paul Verhoeven] if Verhoeven had directed a movie right after RoboCop I think that’s what he is trying to achieve and I hope he does. We’ll see what happens next.”
We then asked if the sequel’s villain will live-up to Kurtwood Smith’s Clarence Boddicker from the original and Ed gave us some hints about what we might be expecting and possibly could include a villain that has been augmented with cybernetic enhancements (Possibly a cyborg himself?).
“I don’t want to spoil anything but we had some ideas about shall we say about the future of augmented humans and one of our villains is that and our other villain lives in the corporate world somewhat as before, but, you know, the RoboCop thing for me was always exploring man’s relationship with technology, coping with technology.”
Ed revealed that Neill Blomkamp is still adamant they want Peter Weller to return and gives his reason why having Weller return would help both the credibility/continuity of the film with fans.
“As you know from the press that Neill Blomkamp wants to bring back Peter Weller back and what you get when you do that if you use the DNA of the old property in the new is that you get something that shares continuity and fans can embrace the brand, it’s not too different and what you realize is that when I was sitting and writing 30 years later, rewriting, the second draft of our sequel to RoboCop, which was called The Corporate Wars at the time and is now called RoboCop Returns. I kept hearing Peter’s voice, you know, Peter adds a lot to that.”
We also asked Ed about his feelings on Paul Verhoeven’s follow-up Total Recall and if RoboCop’s satirical take on the future maybe rubbed-off on that science fiction action film as well since they share a similar tone and style.
“Absolutely. Well, they are [set in the same universe tonally]. I think he took on Total [Total Recall] right after RoboCop and I think that he took the style that he sort of had played around with cause I think there had been drafts of Total Recall where it was completely serious and there had been some strange comedy version of it and the version he made was much more in the tone that you see in RoboCop.”
We’ll be sharing more thoughts and insights from our interview with Ed Neumeier in the near future.
SOURCE: HN ENTERTAINMENT
