The casting on this continues to encourage hope that this might be decent as far as reboots usually go.
At first, I was absolutely against a remake of RoboCop since its one of my three favorite movies. But, the more I read about it, the more interested I'm getting in it. Of course, I've never seen either of the Elite Squad movies, but I have them on my Netflix queue and need to watch them. I've never seen anything that the dude playing Murphy was in. But, when they announced Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson, I immediately started getting excited about this movie. Especially since Jackson is supposedly playing some sort of charismatic media mogul, which sounds like he's not playing a recasted Casey Wong. So it'll be neat to see what they do with this. Also checked out the concept art a few posts up. While the RoboCop redesign looks pretty cool (not sure about the lightsaber, though), I think the ED-209 design isn't so great, mostly because it's more reminiscent of RoboCop 2 than ED-209. I also can't wait to hear who they announce will be playing Dick Jones and Clarence Boddicker. Ronny Cox and Kurtwood Smith would be a tough act to follow, but I'll bet somebody like Bryan Cranston and Jackie Earle Haley could pull it off.
I think you're going to be disappointed, because everything we've heard so far sounds like they're taking a seriously different approach to the property: Outside of Alex Murphy, I wouldn't be shocked if none of the characters in the remake have names from the original. It sounds like Padilha and Co. are really doing something different with the property, and honestly, I'm fine with that, because if you're just remaking the first movie with a new coat of paint, why bother?
I was thinking the same thing earlier. I wouldn't even be completely surprised if they change the name of the movie before it's released.
^ I think they'll keep it for the name recognition value it brings. But I think it's good that they're otherwise totally changing things around. I mean, who on Earth could try to play Clarence Boddicker any better than Kurtwood Smith?!
Deadline Hollywood reports that Abbie Cornish has been offered the female lead. If she accepts, she'll play the part of Murphy's wife.
I hope the producers won't cut out the "I'd buy that for a dollar!" guy! I'm not 100% aboard with this remake, on one hand, it may be somewhat decent, on the other, it may bastardize the original.
The existence of a remake cannot, by definition, tarnish or otherwise damage the quality of an entirely separate work. No one (legitimately, anyway) sits around and thinks, "Wow, Dracula 2000 was such a piece of shit, now I can't enjoy Tod Browning's 1931 film." The RoboCop remake may say something very new and very intelligent with the source material, and be remembered fondly as a companion piece to Verhoeven's original, or it'll be dogshit and little more than a footnote.
Murphy's wife is going to be the female lead? Weird. I thought it was going to be his partner, Lewis.
I know this sounds weird but I always disliked the fact that Robocop never had any police insignia on his armor. I wouldn't follow the instructions of some big robot guy if he didn't have any apparent business barking orders at me. Well... not unless he pulled out his BFG. Then I'd be his bitch.
Would it not be more accurate to call this Robocop a reimagining instead of a reboot? Cause it does not seem they are trying to replay the largest beats of the first film. I typically view a reboot as one that is, at it's core, just retelling the same story with new flm actors. A reimagining as a twist on an established property.
Remake, reboot, and reimagining don't have concrete differences in my opinion. The latter two terms just came into vogue because remake became a bit of a dirty word.
After thinking about it some more... how the heck can Murphy's wife be the female lead in this remake? Murphy's wife didn't DO anything in the first movie except be in a couple of flashbacks. Unless this remake is 90% Murphy and 10% Robocop, it seems like she wouldn't have much to do here either. Lewis was the female lead in the first movie. She was Murphy's partner and the only woman that actually got any development in the entire thing. Besides helping him out she was pretty badass. Maybe that article simply got it wrong and they meant important role instead of female lead?
Or they're taking the story in a very different direction to the original and Murphy's wife will have a much bigger part.
I've never cared much about the character since she never got much to do in the first two movies. Murphy's wife was in a bunch of flashbacks in the first movie, but we learned almost nothing about her. They were only there to develop Murphy and let us know what he lost after getting killed. In the second movie, the whole stalker plot went nowhere. It was the best part of the movie, but the whole thing was crammed into a movie that was too busy. They really should have made it the main plot along with the whole Cain thing.
I feel the same way. Reimagining and Reboot should be considered two different things. It is looking more and more like this thing is a reimagining, completely new plot but with the same characters. That should be interesting...
Fair enough. If they are to have discrete meanings then remake would be the term for going through the same plot beats with different actors in my opinion. A reboot would be starting a franchise over again from scratch, but not necessarily using the same plot. A reimagining would be taking the basic idea of the original and coming up with something dramatically different.
I really hope they don't lose the humor in this remake. The humor was one of the best things about the original Robocop along with everything else like the actors, story, and music.