Remake of Popular Cyborg Officer Movie Still Happening with New Director

MGM going bankrupt, and Darren Aronofsky leaving the studio's RoboCop reboot to instead make The Wolverine his unlikely blockbuster, may have slowed down plans for an ill-conceived remake of the 1987 Paul Verhoeven classic, but it hasn't stopped them. One doesn't go through all the trouble of paying for a photo of a guy smirking in a RoboCop helmet for nothing, after all, and so MGM is now talking with Golden Bear-winning Brazilian director José Padilha for the job.

Padilha directed the acclaimed Bus 174 and both Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad) films, all of which dealt with (to varying degrees) Rio de Janeiro's BOPA--a special forces unit trained to deal with urban warfare--so the choice does make some sense thematically. That is, if you can get past the fact that all the original's satirical elements will most likely be lost in the gunfire, and the larger point that RoboCop shouldn't be remade at all. Except in statue form, obviously.