It’s hard not to get at least a little excited by the most recent trailer for the upcoming ROBOCOP. It’s got robots, guns and Samuel L. Jackson. Maybe it won’t be a 5-star masterpiece, but it will certainly be an entertaining way to kill a couple of hours at the cinema.
The ‘Cop himself, actor Joel Kinnaman, talked to SFX about why he was attracted to the project:
‘When I first heard there was gonna be a ROBOCOP remake, I thought, “Maybe I’ll see that somewhere down the line. But it’s nothing I’m interested in pursuing myself.” Then when I heard it was José Padilha that was gonna direct it, I became very interested. José has fought very hard and succeeded in making something that has a point of view, and a political and philosophical perspective.’
ROBOCOP is a remake, a word that has chilled film fans to the bone for decades. In the majority of cases, it seems, a remake is either seen as worse than the beloved original (for example, the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET remake) or is a straight retelling of the same story, doing nothing to make it stand out (such as this year’s CARRIE). In regards to this, Kinnaman commented on why the ROBOCOP reboot was made and how the film was approached:
‘It’s a great responsibility. Especially in a world where there’s a lot of remakes being made for cynical economic reasons. But having José as a director washed away those fears. The biggest respect you can pay to the original is to acknowledge it as a very intelligent movie, and try to make something intelligent to follow it up with, and not just replay old catchphrases. We kept one or two as a wink to the fans, but we did not try to remake the movie.’
The perfect remake, perhaps? It certainly can be done – one example that comes to mind is Fede Alvarez’ EVIL DEAD reboot, which was bloody fantastic. Will ROBOCOP have franchise fans and newcomers cheering in delight or screaming in distress?
ROBOCOP also stars Gary Oldman (the DARK KNIGHT trilogy), Michael Keaton (BATMAN), Abbie Cornish (SUCKER PUNCH), Jackie Earle Haley (WATCHMEN) and Jay Baruchel (THIS IS THE END). It opens on 12th February 2014.
Source: SFX Magazine
