Wednesday 9th July 2008, 19:28

Darren Aronofsky's Robocop?

Talk of a Robocop remake has been doing the rounds for a while, but has recently picked up more steam, evidenced first by the image above, and now from the Hollywood Reporter claiming Darren Aronofsky is one of the directors being considered to helm it.

I've always had a major soft spot for Robocop, it being the first 18-rated film I ever saw (on video at my cousin's house at the tender age of 11, and aside from permanent blood-lust it never did me any harm...), coupled with it appealing to the violence-loving satirist in me. It also fits into my theory of 1987 being the best ever year of classic action movies, what with that being the year of Robocop, Predator, and Lethal Weapon, plus no doubt others that have yet to occur to me. Robocop 2 wasn't as good but still followed the same basically enjoyable template, while Robocop 3 is one of the greatest cinematic travesties ever to be perpetrated, and if everyone responsible got their heads blown off by ED-209 I wouldn't be particularly saddened. Peter Weller steered clear from the start, and Nancy Allen at least had the good sense to die half-way through. They gave Robocop a ****ing jetpack!

Ahem. Anyway. I've never had a problem with remakes - yes they're arguably pointless, and rarely surpass the original, but they can still be very enjoyable in their own right, and despite its many qualities Robocop has aged quite badly. So having a good director attached to this bodes quite well, not least because Aronofsky was in line to reboot the Batman franchise before Christopher Nolan got involved. His take was apparently viewed by the studio as too dark, which can only be a good thing.

A relatively heavyweight Robocop remake which takes on board the relative depth of the original without being too burdened by CGI can only be a good thing, in my opinion. While obviously the technology needs to have moved on, part of Robocop's appeal was the fact that he was definitely an augmented cop, rather than any kind of superhero (Iron Man's got that quite nicely tied up now). Take it seriously enough and while it's unlikely to set the world aflame it could easily end up being a top quality movie.

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