Talking to MTV on the Golden Globes red carpet RoboCop director Aronofsky spoke about the reboot of the franchise. Looks like Aronofsky wants to take the character in a new direction, exploring this new technological era we find ourselves in:

“The thing that’s exciting for a filmmaker like me about [“RoboCop”] is that it’s not as iconic as some of the other titles out there, so there’s room to do stuff with it,” Aronofsky told MTV News. “It had incredible insight into the future.”

[...]

“The world has so changed—how much every one of us is somewhat of a cyborg at this point with cell phones hanging out of us, with implants of all different types.” Aronofsky posed. In the same breath, however, he cautioned that the project is still in its early stages. “I think there’s a lot of really timely ideas in it. If it comes together, it’ll be great, but who knows?”

As for a possible cameo by original star Peter Weller, Aronofsky backed away from any commitments. “I can’t make any promises,” he assured, “but I’ll show as much respect to the fans as I can.”

Following the Aronofsky announcement MTV caught up with the producers Brad Fischer and Mike Medavoy to answer the rush of new questions.

Sequel?

When quizzed about the fourth Robocop movie’s integration into the existing universe the producers stated:

“None of [the earlier films are] going to be canonical, as a matter of fact,” Fischer revealed. “I wouldn’t say it’s a direct sequel.”
“Definitely not a sequel,” Medavoy added, saying he preferred the term “reimagining.”

Why make a new movie?

But why a “Robocop” reboot at all? Medavoy, who worked on the earlier three films, said it’s because the themes explored in the first film, of fading humanity in the face of corporate and commercial omnipresence, have only become more relevant in the intervening 15 years.

“The themes of machines and technology, for instance, that’s certainly become even more prevalent today in terms of man giving up certain things to his creations and his technology and his reliance to that. It’s pretty provocative stuff,” he said. “You’ve got people today with all kinds of different implants and mechanical implants. Where does that person become no longer human? After the first one? After 50 percent of the brain gets replaced? A lot of the themes that we dealt with in the original are still very interesting to us.”

Rating?

So many remakes and sequels have been dumbed down to a younger audience, there’s a big fear that the new Robocop movie may be bundled into the PG-13 group with all the nitty-gritty-grind-n-gore cut out. This is what Medavoy had to say on that,

“Well I was involved with the original ‘Robocop,’ and it was an R, and the likelihood is that this will be an R. It’s likely to be an R unless the director cuts back on some of it.”

No details on the plot were announced.

In July 2008 at Comic-con MGM announced to the world that Darren Aronofsky, (director of The Wrestler, The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream an Pi) shall be helming the 2010 recreation of Robocop. Screenwriter David Self (Road to Perdition) will be penning the script.

Mary Parent, MGM’s chairman said: “Darren is undeniably one of the most talented, original and visceral filmmakers, and David is one of the greatest writers in Hollywood. All of us at MGM couldn’t be more excited.” Whilst producers David Thwaites and Brad Fischer added: “With a filmmaker of Darren Aronofsky’s vision and imagination and a writer of David Self’s caliber, we are poised to bring to the screen an entertaining and provocative film, which will now be under the creative guidance of two of the best storytellers working in our industry today.”

Now all we need is Clint Mansell to do the score… . All of Aronosky’s movies are pure gold, needless to say I am very excited about this movie.

Aronofsky’s previous work

Pi

Requiem for a Dream

The Fountain

The Wrestler