Sometime when you write a story, one of your sources cares to comment on it. Such was the case today when Clint Morris, creator of Moviehole, talked about a recent Financial Times news report about the sad state of affairs MGM finds itself in. The Times piece is quite good at explaining the extent of the financial hole MGM finds itself in, and why it's not as simple as you might think to find the money to make a new James Bond movie (which is the studio's best gamble to make if it wants to make some new green.)
About 30 paragraphs down in the Times piece is a throwaway mention that Darren Aronofsky has walked away from making the planned remake of RoboCop. That's the part of the story where we return to Morris and his Moviehole news story, and the source that spoke to him about the project. The insider told the site that the new RoboCop was among the first wave of jettisoned projects that MGM shed at the start of its insolvency, and that Aronofsky had indeed moved on to other creative endeavors.
Power up the DeLorean and travel back two years in the past and Aronofsky and David Self were working on the rebooted RoboCop screenplay. At the time The Wrestler director was high on being able to contribute something contemporary to the story of a deceased Detroit cop resurrected as a cyborg bent on bringing down his killers. "I'm a big fan of the original," Aronofsky told Empire magazine at the time. "It still holds up as an amazing film, and I think it's more just looking at that same type of material in the 21st century and seeing where it leads us." So as crazy as it sounds a remake of RoboCop could have actually been...cool.
As the fate of MGM remains unknown there's little chance right now of seeing any new movement on a 21st century RoboCop. Still, that doesn't mean Aronofsky and Self's screenplay isn't out there, somewhere. Perhaps one of our insider fans will lend a hand to Coming Attractions and pass along that PDF screenplay?
Actually it wasn't. I swear I remember seeing early marketing for it saying it was set in the year 1995. And as soon as the movie came out it was pulled and never mentioned again. I was a teenager at the time so it's a pretty clear memory to me, though I can't find any proof of it on the mighty internetz.
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mckracken
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Posted: 13 years 38 weeks ago
wasnt ROBOCOP originally set in the 21st century?