District 9 director Neill Blomkamp to helm new RoboCop reboot

MGM is developing the sequel RoboCop Returns with District 9 and Elysium filmmaker Neill Blomkamp to direct.

RoboCop is coming back. Again. MGM is developing the sequel RoboCop Returns with District 9 and Elysium filmmaker Neill Blomkamp to direct. The film will be a sequel to Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 original about a cyborg police officer in a crime-ridden Detroit. It’s to be based on a never-made spec script by the 1987 film’s writers, Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner.

The original RoboCop film was directed by Paul Verhoeven.

Two other sequels followed, in 1990 and 1993. MGM attempted a $100-million RoboCop reboot in 2014, starring Joel Kinnaman. It failed to kickstart the franchise, with $58.6 million in ticket sales in the US and Canada, though it fared better at the overseas box office with $184.1 million. Deadline first reported the project.

Blomkamp, who was scheduled to direct a new film in the Alien franchise before the project was sidelined in favour of the Prometheus films, wrote on Twitter that he is very excited to take on this challenge.

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