You just don’t remake Paul Verhoeven. That should be a general rule for Hollywood. It’s practically impossible to replicate the Dutch filmmaker’s blend of social satire, sex, and graphic violence.
So, when Hollywood decided to remake “RoboCop” and “Total Recall,” two Verhoeven sci-fi classics, I just knew it wouldn’t end well for the creatives involved. No surprise, then, that both of those 21st-century “updates” failed miserably, both commercially and critically. “Total Recall” (2012) has a 31% score on Rotten Tomatoes, while “RoboCop” (2014) sits at 49%.
James Wan clearly hasn’t gotten the memo. I can report that he is not only set to executive produce a “RoboCop” series for Amazon/MGM, but will also direct key episodes. A six-month shoot, starting next January in Vancouver, is planned for the series.
I can also report that the series will debut a new cybernetic lawman named Marc Kyle.
Unlike Peter Weller’s Alex Murphy in Verhoeven’s ’87 original, Kyle will start off as a soldier rather than a police officer. Just as Murphy does in the first “RoboCop,” Marc Kyle will die—in a war rather than at the hands of crooks—before being remade as a cyborg and beginning his new life under Murphy’s tutelage.
Peter Ocko (“Lodge 49”) has been tapped as writer, executive producer, and showrunner. Ocko has been a Hollywood writer for decades, having penned shows such as “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose,” “Dead Like Me,” and “Pushing Daisies.” More recently, he served as showrunner on “Lodge 49” and “Moonhaven.”
I would rather have had Neil Blomkamp’s “RoboCop Returns.” Blomkamp’s sequel, greenlit in 2018, was meant to bring back Peter Weller in the titular role. However, much like many of Blomkamp’s projects these last few years, MGM scrapped the project a year later.