Now we are all undoubtedly aware that there is going to be a reboot of the RoboCop franchise in the next couple of years with Jose Padilha at the helm. The original directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Peter Weller as the titular character is undoubtedly on of the greatest films of the last 30 years because it was so much more than other action films of it's time like Commando and Rambo III both of which were heavy on action but light on story. The Rambo franchise was heavy on story an action with it's first film-First Blood but degenerated into a straight up action series with the sequel First Blood Part II. RoboCop told a story of corruption, the alarming rate of privatization by companies, and dealt with humanity. Today's action films feature very little of that, especially if they're directed by somebody like Michael Bay who is so obviously not a storyteller.
Some reboots have been quite good and have been quite different from their source material like The Dark Knight which was quite a lot like Michael Mann's police thriller classic Heat whereas Batman Begins really built itself upon the Batman mythos by introducing characters like Ra's Al Ghul. So yeah, if Padilha decides to really do what Verhoeven did or what Kershner did with the series, then I have no problem. However if the film turns out like Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines which was good but lacked a great story; unlike the first two films whose stories are just fantastic.
Director
This project has a director attached to it and he's somebody who knows how to do a good cop movie so I don't have any problems with him. Padilha's take on RoboCop could easily turn out awful which is the most likely scenario or it could be one hell of another addition to the series that is so desperate for some love. I trust this guy will at least make a movie better than RoboCop 3 which was just plain awful beyond awful and is in fact one of the few films I strongly consider to be among the worst I've seen.
This guy is no amateur filmmmaker and his most recent film-Elite Squad 2 received very positive reviews and even maintains an 8.3/10 on it's IMDB page. That's out of over 13,000 rating so I'm confident this guy will make on hell of a RoboCop film. He's got experience and while I haven't seen his films, I completely trust this guy with RoboCop. Darren Aronofsky he sure aint but I still think he knows what he's doing.
RoboCop
Casting RoboCop is nearly impossible because the character is so tied to it's original performer that I really wouldn't who to choose. I mean Peter Weller may not have liked working in that suit very much but he still gave one hell of a performance that is so tied to the role, it's nearly impossible to recast it. Though reading one of the names that Padilha suggested for the role, I was convinced I found the new RoboCop-Michael Fassbender. Of course the other actor who he mentioned is also equally great. That is a great up and coming actor named Chris Pine. For now, Fassbender is my top choice but Chris Pine is right in second place.
Fassbender has shown in his very young career that he is extremely capable as an actor. He's gained much love from his performance in Hunger and perhaps his most recognizable role in X-Men: First Class as the young Erik Lensherr AKA Magneto. The character of RoboCop is not an easy role to play as first of all whoever plays him will be trying to stand out from beneath Peter Weller's shadow but because the role is so complex. You have to go form being Alex Murphy to being RoboCop to trying to find Alex Murphy again and then finally being Alex Murphy again.
The Villain
Now Padilha still wants to retain the original films' message about corporate America because it's even more relevant in today's world than it was in the 1980's. Money is everything these days and with movements like Occupy Wall Street moving all over the world, RoboCop could easily be fantastic. Apparently Wagner Moura is interested in playing a villain in the movie and I say have him play a character similar to Clarence Boddicker. The other main villain would of course have to be the Vice President of OCP-Dick Jones. I really hope they keep him in the film because I thought he was a great villain and omitting him from the film yet still wanting to keep the film's political overtones would be a mistake because you can't have one with out the other. To play Dick Jones, I choose Christoph Waltz because well, I like Christoph Waltz and enjoy him in movies.
