Neill Blomkamp Says He Would've Directed His Scrapped ROBOCOP RETURNS Movie in The Style of Paul Verhoeven

It seems like a RoboCop movie would have been a perfect project for director Neill Blomkamp to take on, and back in 2018, he was set to helm RoboCop Returns. It would’ve served as a direct sequel to the original 1987 Paul Verhoeven-directed film.

That movie was based on a script written by Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner that was planned as a sequel to Verhoeven’s film shortly after it was released. Neumeier and Miner were attached to produce the film and Justin Rhodes who co-wrote Terminator: Dark Fate was going to do a fresh rewrite of the script.

On top of that, there was a possibility that Peter Weller would return to reprise his role. During a recent interview with JoBlo, Blomkamp revealed that his plan was to simulate Paul Verhoeven's directing style. He said:

"That's the only film that I would have ever done where I would have tried to basically simulate Paul Verhoeven's directing style. I wanted it to feel like it was the day after. Like if Dick Jones fell out of the window on Monday, this would have been Tuesday. It was like literally the next morning that it began. So it was a direct sequel exactly in the same style."

Neumeier previously said:

“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.”

It seems like this would have made for a great sequel! This is a movie that I would have loved to see get made. Ultimately Blomkamp left the project to work on another film project, which was Demonic. After watching that one, I think he should’ve stuck with RoboCop Returns.

The RoboCop franchise is reportedly expected to be revived as a TV series by Amazon. We’ll just have to wait and see how that plays out.