Requiem for a ‘Robocop’?

Back in my college days I took a World Cinema course that focused exclusively on the works of Paul Verhoeven. My professor was obsessed with the guy, which if you were to ever meet him would make perfect sense. The man was convinced Showgirls was the greatest modern film ever made – I kid you not. Of course he was a bit of a letch so no surprises there. The class actually was surprisingly good as it opened me up to the filmmaker’s earlier works. I even wrote a shot analysis for his 1987 Sci-Fi classic Robocop and as a result I know the film inside out. So when news hit out of Comic-Con that Darren Aronofsky has been brought on to resurrect the franchise I couldn’t help but smile.

For those of you not in the know, the original film was an equally brutal and satirical examination of a near-future Detroit that has been overrun by violence and corruption. A rare good cop Officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) is gunned down and left for dead, but is resurrected through an experimental program which renders him more machine than man…a Robocop. He’s the perfect crime fighting machine, devoid of emotion and driven by the letter of the law. He eventually sets his sights on the corrupted officials that facilitated the demise of his former self, leading him to come to terms with who he was and whether that man still exists inside of him. The film was a huge hit, spawning two progressively worse sequels, a comic book series, video games, and even a short lived TV series.

Aronofsky has been trying to snare a big genre property for years, flirting with the Batman franchise, Lone Wolf and Cub, and most recently Watchmen among others. The project’s $100 million budget is far and away the most money the director has had to play with; it will be exciting to see what he’ll do with it. While the producers intend to make a film that mirrors the original in tone and feel; I expect it to be very gritty, with more practical effects and less camp comedy ala The Dark Knight – which has made a little bit of money this summer if I’m not mistaken. Anyone who’s read the Frank Miller penned Batman: Year One script (hint: Google) he was set to make – with Christian Bale no less – before the project fizzled will have a great idea what his Robocop might feel like. No doubt he will have a field day teeing off on today’s media obsessed culture and rampant political corruption that was surprisingly prophesized in the original. David Self (Road to Perdition) will be hammering out the screenplay, which is welcome news to me. The story will move locales to futuristic LA 20 years after the Robocop program was shut down. I wonder if Officer Murphy will make a return or if someone new will dawn the helmet.

Mike Medavoy, who produced the original while at Orion, is shepherding the return through Phoenix Pictures along with Arnold Messer, Brad Fischer and David Thwaites. MGM has fast tracked the film for a 2010 release. Will this affect Aronofsky’s plans for his long in development The Fighter with Mark Wahlberg and Brad Pitt, which has been delayed several times already? Last I heard the film was set to start production in October. Wahlberg must be loosing his mind given all of the work he’s already put in for the role. And let’s not forget the curious ballet drama Black Swan (also with Phoenix Pictures) that Aronofsky was attached to earlier this year. He’s currently in post on his pro wrestling drama The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke. The suddenly prolific auteur now has 3 films solidly in the pipeline for release between now and 2010, equaling his entire output over the last decade. We’ll just have to wait and see if all of them will come together. Oh, and let’s not forget the potential actor’s strike which is still very much looming.

The big question is will Christian Bale make it a geek trifecta by starring in Batman, Terminator, AND Robocop? The world waits with bated breath…