Darren Aronofsky revives Robocop

Apparently to be a sequel set in Los Angeles 20 years after the original.

I've begun to wonder if there are creative types these days who are demanding contracts which safeguard their intellectual property from being remade like some shit twenty years after the fact. I certain hope so.

I've been repping Robocop IRL lately, here's hoping Aronofsky doesn't leave his usual simian-heavy ART FILM handprints all over it.

Road to Perdition is one of my favorite movies, so I'm optimistic there. Seem to recall a hatefest thread on here somewhere though.

BALD ROBOCYBORGS FLOATING IN TREEBUBBLES THRUOGH SPACE

road to perdition is one of your favourite movies??

and you're decrying heavy-handed art film-isms?

it would be better if it was still set in detroit, this nouveau-robocop.

Much as I don't care for Aronofsky or that they're doing this at all, it can't be worse than Robocop III.

road to perdition is one of your favourite movies??

-- s1ocki, Friday, July 25, 2008 4:56 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

and you're decrying heavy-handed art film-isms?

-- s1ocki, Friday, July 25, 2008 4:58 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

lol seriously

i dont really have an objection to this... it's not like the franchise is at a high point right now and i wouldnt mind seeing what aronofsky does with a straight genre pic. what do we have to lose

I like Aronofsky, but I really can't imagine him making a Robocop movie. Then again, he has shown a liking to high-concept science fiction, so maybe it'll be heavier on the sci-fi side and lighter on the action side (which of course could be bad for a Robocop flick).

Can he do the wonderful macabre humour? ("Somebody call a paramedic!")

seriously, i doubt it, considering how dreary and leaden his three films have been.

Yeah, humour doesn't seem to be his strong side. I think the "dreary and leaden" style fit Pi and The Fountain quite well though, since both of them are good movies. (Requiem for a Dream less so, that was were his overt seriousness and hyper-drama felt like too much.) But I don't think it would fit Robocop. Then again, he has made only three feature films so far, so maybe there's still time to evolve.

His new movie, which apparently is about a retired pro-wrestler (played by Mickey Rourke, maybe reprising his role from Sin City?) returning to the ring certainly sounds a bit different from the previous three.

road to perdition is one of your favourite movies??

-- s1ocki, Friday, July 25, 2008 4:56 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

and you're decrying heavy-handed art film-isms?

-- s1ocki, Friday, July 25, 2008 4:58 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

i mean i see rtp on the same level as 'the public enemy' or even beatty's 'dick tracy,' just a bit less openly cartoony. it's dark and stylized and has mob dudes with guns, i really enjoy that type of thing. granted its pretty humorless and self-serious, but the cinematography and the general noirish sensibility make it worth it for me.

i dont really have an objection to this... it's not like the franchise is at a high point right now and i wouldnt mind seeing what aronofsky does with a straight genre pic. what do we have to lose

-- s1ocki, Friday, 25 July 2008 06:29 (2 hours ago) Link

This is pretty much how I feel.

Also, I realise Aronofsky isn't just a director for hire, but this: "utilizing the latest filmmaking technology and spending accordingly, as much as $100 million on the budget. The tone and feel would be similar to the first movie."

I'm just hoping DA & Co. maintain the splatter standards set by their predecessors. Solely out of respect for the source material, of course. Long as they manage work in a few good exploding heads (bodies, limbs, whatever), I'm good.

Plus, I'd really like to see some more of ED-209.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb52/The_Playlist/movies/be-kind-rewind.jpg

http://blog.laptopmag.com/wpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/buyfordollar.jpg

^needs to feature this guy again

but the cinematography and the general noirish sensibility make it worth it for me.

So, HOOS, how do you feel about Miller's Crossing?

I, for one, could see Robocop being alright. It is a question as to which direction he'll go - remember, at that point Terminator loomed large in the technopocalyptic landscape, so I always figured that the dark, frequently corny humor came from wanting to move away from Arnold's futuristic cyborg. I hope they retain the jokiness - I still remember the first time I saw the dude who had just been hit by the Chrysler - awesome.

http://b3ta.cr3ation.co.uk/data/toxic.gif

haha, quality.

that mutant splattering is from Robocop? I must've seen that film a dozen times as a wee boy (yeah irresponsible parenting) and I don't remember ever seeing that.

Maybe it was the 'muddy funsters' censored and cut version.

"once...I even called him AN AIRHEAD"

Fuck dudes Robocop marked the beginning of my first super duper bad LSD trip. I dunno if this is gonna re-up me a flashback or no.

It is from a scene at the end of the film when Clarence Boddicker's (one of filmdom's most awesomely appropriate villain names) #1 henchman spills a bunch of radioactive waste on himself and then, well.. splat!

(xxxpost)

great, classic gratuitous gore scene

hell yes. Same goes for the Murphy shooting: "give the man a hand!"

i saw it the day i came home from summer camp, head looking like a pineapple from all deer fly bites. my sister took me to this and we snuck into jaws 4 iirc (it also has some awesome gratuitous bullshit)

ha jaws the revenge is like the worst movie ever

But it helped Michael Caine buy a house for his mum.

I'd rather seem them woo back Verhoeven.

Ropocop one of the best movies ever

what a score too

Does aranofsky have any skill at satire? I hope they keep that bit of the original

maybe not: http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/2009/07/will-darren-aronofsky-direct-robocop.html

Learned from that article: In addition to Robocop and Red Dawn, MGM is also rebooting Poltergeist. Why even bother pitching original ideas anymore? Just pick through old video tapes and see what '80s franchise might be a profitable revival and then pitch that.

Ferris Bueller's Even More Bitchin' Day Off

I'm imagining a really dark, gritty version of Turk 182 where Jimmy doesn't just spraypaint things or hack jumbotrons. He blows shit up and slices fingers off.

saw 182

still waiting for Innerer Space

Hello Once Again

Heartbleeps
Jeckyll And Hyde...Together Again...Again!
Zorro, The Gayer Blade
Working? Hardly!
Meatballs II, Part II

lmbobocop

Harderbodies

wall-e 2: the drones of navarone

Thanks, amateurist for getting more clearly at what I was groping towards above. Would buy, for a dollar, a Robocop movie about a world that's already free of violent crime but uses the symbol of the awesome crime-fighting robot to distract people from who the real criminals are! Like, the cackling evil guy should specifically be concerned that news crews, out of sheer boredom and desperation, are starting to do coverage on institutionalized poverty, Wall Street shenanigans, and the prison-industrial complex. Cue Robocop!

I thought that was plot of demolition man

it's a situation not of my picking

Thanks, amateurist for getting more clearly at what I was groping towards above. Would buy, for a dollar, a Robocop movie about a world that's already free of violent crime but uses the symbol of the awesome crime-fighting robot to distract people from who the real criminals are! Like, the cackling evil guy should specifically be concerned that news crews, out of sheer boredom and desperation, are starting to do coverage on institutionalized poverty, Wall Street shenanigans, and the prison-industrial complex. Cue Robocop!

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, September 8, 2013 1:56 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that already is kinda what the 1987 movie is about, no? well at least the part about white-collar crime being even more onerous than street crime.

also the total schlocky glee with which verhoeven depicts, e.g. robocop shooting a would-be rapist in the balls is not likely to carry through to this one. it looks too tasetful

also: keys to the executive bathroom

that already is kinda what the 1987 movie is about, no? well at least the part about white-collar crime being even more onerous than street crime.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, September 8, 2013 3:31 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, except street crime does seem to actually be a problem in that movie (and the world where it was received), but other than that yeah - i would say this is the 'core concept' that could be revived and adapted to a new time.

I'm also reminded of how some dumb conservative macro in either "powerful conservative images" or the artist thread brought up CARJACKING and someone was like, wow, haven't heard that one in a while. Maybe we're due for some kind of retro trend of paranoid conserva-fears, that would be an okay basis for a RoboCop movie too. Like, twenty years after the original RoboCop, the Tea Party finds and revives this piece of machinery that's been in a warehouse all this time because people stopped being terrified of crime.

Also, they should get some miscellaneous Twin Peaks actors to fill out the cast.

They can fix Lara Flynn Boyle they can fix everything

oof - I know they're just trailers, but gah, everything about them looks wrong. I really don't think this is going to be a terrible movie, but rather sterile and generic future dystopian action flick, like the Colin Farrell "Total Recall" film.

I think the RebootCop trailers look like a made for TV movie, and make the CF 'TR' look rather decent by comparison.

fuck, if they would re-release the original to theaters i would go watch it right now

Or just watch this (NSFW)

http://vimeo.com/85903713

Further to which

http://io9.com/this-two-hour-fan-made-robocop-remake-is-the-robocop-re-1517709249

this is wonderful, thanks!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/movies/robocop-remake-arrives-starring-joel-kinnaman.html?_r=0

the movie has been pumped up, cautiously updated and cleaned up, with fewer expletives

lame

http://www.unemployednegativity.com/2014/02/we-can-remake-him-robocop-redux.html

It is from this angle that we can approach the film's largest departure from the original. In the first film robocop is a machine that eventually discovers the man underneath, recovering his memory, and with the help of his partner, his identity. In the remake this is reversed, robocop emerges from surgery aware that he is Detective Alex Murphy, horrified that an attempt on his life has left him little more than a head, a bit of a torso, and a hand. He is eventually made a machine, first by drugs which relieve the substantial anxiety he is dealing with as a man made into a machine. Then later, in the film's most interesting bit of scientific speculation, he is reprogrammed as a machine which thinks that it is free. This is because consciousness proves to be too slow, too riddled with indecision, to function effectively tactically. When put up against an actual robot, robocop fails to respond fast enough, or decisively enough. As Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) says, "The human element will always be present! Compassion, fear, instinct, they will always interfere with the system!" The solution that Dr. Norton comes up with is to make robocop's combat functions automatic, a series of highly complex reflexes that kick in whenever he is threatened, but to program him to think that he chooses these actions. Robocop is a machine programmed to think that it is free. Aware of his desires and decisions, but unaware of the programming which has produced them, as Spinoza would say.

Robocop's ideological interpellation is matched in the film by the picture it paints of contemporary life. Robocop is entirely integrated within the circuits of the corporate surveillance state, able to tap into every security camera and cellphone call in pursuit of accused criminals. He is surveillance personified. What is perhaps interesting, and slightly amusing, is the surprise on the face of the individual that he tracks down. They have forgotten that every call is monitored, every action filmed. They are too programmed to think that they are free, in that way they are just like us.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/robocop-statue-unveiled-today-detroit-part-robocop-day/#!T4err

i forgot it's gonna be actually IN FRONT OF THE POLICE STATION

The reboot was a tiny bit better than what I had expected it to be

It wasn't very good but I have to give it some credit for not trying to slavishly recreate the original.

http://www.unemployednegativity.com/2014/02/we-can-remake-him-robocop-redux.html

It is from this angle that we can approach the film's largest departure from the original. In the first film robocop is a machine that eventually discovers the man underneath, recovering his memory, and with the help of his partner, his identity. In the remake this is reversed, robocop emerges from surgery aware that he is Detective Alex Murphy, horrified that an attempt on his life has left him little more than a head, a bit of a torso, and a hand. He is eventually made a machine, first by drugs which relieve the substantial anxiety he is dealing with as a man made into a machine. Then later, in the film's most interesting bit of scientific speculation, he is reprogrammed as a machine which thinks that it is free. This is because consciousness proves to be too slow, too riddled with indecision, to function effectively tactically. When put up against an actual robot, robocop fails to respond fast enough, or decisively enough. As Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) says, "The human element will always be present! Compassion, fear, instinct, they will always interfere with the system!" The solution that Dr. Norton comes up with is to make robocop's combat functions automatic, a series of highly complex reflexes that kick in whenever he is threatened, but to program him to think that he chooses these actions. Robocop is a machine programmed to think that it is free. Aware of his desires and decisions, but unaware of the programming which has produced them, as Spinoza would say.

Robocop's ideological interpellation is matched in the film by the picture it paints of contemporary life. Robocop is entirely integrated within the circuits of the corporate surveillance state, able to tap into every security camera and cellphone call in pursuit of accused criminals. He is surveillance personified. What is perhaps interesting, and slightly amusing, is the surprise on the face of the individual that he tracks down. They have forgotten that every call is monitored, every action filmed. They are too programmed to think that they are free, in that way they are just like us.

― j., Thursday, 13 February 2014 20:24 (3 months ago) Permalink

Sounds like it might make a good philosophy lecture but probably not a very good movie.

Even the shittiest products of pop culture can have interesting things to say!

Thomas Kinkade paintings probably tell you more about the culture that produced them than say, a Johnathan Franzen novel or something.

oh no a franzen novel speaks multitudes.

in much the way a kinkade painting does, even

the remake wasn't very good. instead of kind of lacing the whole movie with satire like verhoeven did they pound us over the head with the samuel l jackson interludes, and they're about as subtle as his acting. i hate these types of movies where you can tell they decide to make certain characters villains about two thirds of the way through the writing process, after hemming and hawing about whether they might make them good guys instead.

i thought kinnaman was really good, keaton was good in a kind of incoherent role that seemed to be trying to combine three roles from the original (and i'm still not sure why he was pulling those nefarious moves in act 3, seemed dumb and unnecessary, and tied in to the whole "we just decided to make him a villain" thing.)

the clarence boddicker equivalent (vallon) was a complete non-entity, he registered a big zero on the kurtwood smith sliminess scale, he was like a slumming soap opera reject who grew out his hair a couple inches and didn't wash it for a day and we were supposed to buy him as a detroit crime lord.

michael k williams was sorely underutilized, gary oldman was mailing it in, etc. basically everything that made the original great was just flattened into this PG-13 competence.

Hey, remember that innocent and unblemished world we once enjoyed, the one where Neil Blomkamp never directed a Robocop sequel no one asked for thirty years after the original was released? Well, you might want to sit down...

the only heartening thing is that Neumeier and Miner actually wrote this one.

i love the original Robocop, but i also feel like any remakes can't be much worse than 2 and 3

This appears to be a sequel? I can't imagine they'd try another straight up remake so close to the Joel Kinnaman one

the remake was so boring, i can't remember a thing about it.

i did catch Robocop 3 on TV recently. it was cheesy as hell and a whole lot of fun. the Robocop vs. Ninja Terminator scenes were great. he pretty much only shoot dirty cops in it. plus there's this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l4IrCBLzTI

i guess after his abandoned aliens followup blomkamp's thing now is developing direct sequels to beloved 80s action movies?

if it does ever get made i guess it'll be like all his other movies in that it'll have super-cool-looking tech and weapons but otherwise be worthless

just leave robocop alone folks - it's every bit as relevant today as it was in 1987 if not more so, it doesn't need any more tinkering

the only heartening thing is that Neumeier and Miner actually wrote this one.

STEEL FEET
walking along the street.

BLUE METAL
flash past us. Robo's coming.

https://i.gifer.com/NUWX.gif

Robo’s coming?

https://goo.gl/images/Tr52N3

Oh well, didn’t work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REItHTPjCF4

its time to bring back the jetpack

its crazy i used to go to a 3D Sculpture class on that same street

oh my god that script

good to see that despite the strain of robo's daredevil barrel-rolls, his lipgloss remains impeccable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5fr1s15eng

Ha, not that, though that's cool. This:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCYF7eOlrJo&feature=emb_logo

There are a few of these posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCYF7eOlrJo

https://letterboxd.com/film/why-im-running-andrew-yang/

I assume this has been posted before, but it's new to me:

https://vimeo.com/85903713

A more or less scene for scene crowdsourced remake, with at least one particular scene so over the top and very NSFW that it careens into the absurd.

shit like this makes me hate pop culture addiction

I just finished the four-part, 4+ hour "RoboDoc" and ... it's OK. Very thorough. I was most impressed with some of the behind the scenes stunts and effects stories, things I'd never considered, like how the targeting system was just an animated optical, or how the RoboCop POV shots were also optical effects designed to look like video, or how the heat vision shot was not heat vision but people dressed in leotards painted to *look* like heat vision. Also, I think Peter Weller must think of himself as sort of an acting equivalent of Miles Davis.

that "Our Robocop Remake" thing is brilliant. I just love the idea behind it. though that particular NSFW scene does kind of dominate the entire thing, I almost feel bad for everyone else involved because anyone who sees this is only gonna remember one thing

Weller’s voices the character again in the new Robocop game that’s releasing soon-ish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nutwkk18DSQ