A new RoboCop movie is in the works at MGM with the original 1987 writer Ed Neumeier. And it plans to be a direct sequel to the original film.
Ed Neumeier spilled the beans on the upcoming project in an interview with Zeitgeist Magazine.
“I didn’t expect to be talking about [RoboCop] thirty years later. It was kind of the start of my career and later we did Starship Troopers – which was an enormous movie that took forever. I think all of that came out of that and it’s nice that people are still interested in RoboCop and they have me working on a new one at MGM right now so maybe we’ll get another one out of it.”
Asked if he could give some details on the project, Neumeier revealed it would be a direct sequel to the original RoboCop.
“Well, here’s what I’ll say. We’re not supposed to say too much. There’s been a bunch of other RoboCop movies and there was recently a remake and I would say this would be kind of going back to the old RoboCop we all love and starting there and going forward. So it’s a continuation really of the first movie. In my mind. So it’s a little bit more of the old school thing.”
Neumeier also elaborated on the success of RoboCop and why it stands out among the plethora of action films in the 1980s.
“I think it was my sense of humour. It was sort of how I look at things and way, way back in the 1980’s when I was writing this, you were supposed to write action movies that were exciting, but you weren’t really supposed to write action movies that were funny or satirical and I always thought you could do that. In the 80’s that was kind of a satire about corporate America and a little bit about what was going in law enforcement and policing and stuff like that. Those were topics that I thought I could write about in a fun way and luckily I hooked up with a bunch of talented people and the movie turned out really well.”
RoboCop originally debuted in 1987 and grossed over $53 million. It would spawn two sequels in 1990 and 1993. There would also be a 1994 television series. Sony would then reboot the franchise in 2014. However, Ed Neumeier, the original writer of the 1987 film, would only work on the television series and the original film.