After hitting a snag when losing District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, RoboCop Returns appears back on track. It has been announced that Abe Forsythe will now helm the film.
Abe Forsythe isn’t a household name just yet but he did direct Little Monsters starring Lupita Nyong’o which received some positive notices. He’s definitely on the more indie side of things but those sensibilities have proven to work to great success with some big studio films.
Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner are producing and executive producing with Justin Rhodes (Terminator: Dark Fate) who did a rewrite of the script that Neumeier and Miner wrote way back in the ’80s. Forsyth will now rewrite the script penned by Rhodes, which is said to be a direct sequel to the original 1987 film.
1987’s RoboCop was directed by Paul Verhoeven and took place in a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit. Evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force and to test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. The film was a hit upon release, grossing $53.4 million on a $13 million budget.
