Director Neill Blomkamp Offers Update on His ROBOCOP Movie and Confirms the Original Suit Will Be Back

It looks like director Neill Blomkamp’s RoboCop Returns movie is still in development! The movie is going to be a direct sequel to the original 1987 Paul Verhoeven-directed film, and we have a little update to share with you today regarding its status.

The director recently shared a couple of tweets with updates. The first is the the script is still being written. He also teased that the movie will very much honor Verhoeven and his vision of this world.

Script is being written. Going well! Imagine watching Verhoeven do a follow up film https://t.co/QDp5T7cf5L

— Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) June 29, 2019

In the second tweet, which you can see below, the filmmaker confirms that the new movie will bring back the original RoboCop suit, which is sure to get fans excited.

1 million% original https://t.co/1bgDvgMLHd

— Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) June 29, 2019

This movie is based on a script that was written years ago by RoboCop's original screenwriters Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner. That movie never happened due to some issues. Justin Rhodes, who co-wrote the upcoming Terminator film for James Cameron and Tim Miller, is rewriting that script, which was originally a planned sequel to Verhoeven’s film.

When previously talking about the film, Neumeier talked about how this project came about, saying:

“We talked about it a couple of years back and I reminded [MGM] that we had written a very rough sequel back in 1988 which then was stopped by the writer’s strike, the same year. And they looked at it and they said ‘Oh, good!’, so we did some more work on that and then Neill Blomkamp found out about it and he said, ‘I have always wanted to do this, this is my dream project’ and MGM was very very pleased to get into business with him.”

The writer went on to say that Blomkamp’s goal for the film is to capture the same spirit of the original. He wants to direct the sequel as if Verhoeven had directed it right after RoboCop:

“Neill Blomkamp and his screenwriter Justin Rhodes have done a pass on the script we were writing on and they’re doing another one. It is a slightly different concept in some ways than we were originally doing. I don’t want to talk too much about it or somebody will call me and tell me to shut up, but we’re hopeful and I think Neill really really wants to make a good RoboCop movie. His idea is that it should be the proper Verhoeven… if Verhoeven had directed a movie right after RoboCop… I think that’s what he is trying to achieve and I hope he does. We’ll see what happens next.”

I’m extremely curious and excited about how this movie is going to turn out. I love RoboCop, and if Blomkamp can actually make a great sequel based on the original concept for it back in the ‘80s, that would be amazing!

The movie has yet to get an official green light, but I hope that it happens! I want to see this movie!