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Amazon just took a big step forward on a show that will cost significantly more than a dollar. A new series based on Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 classic RoboCop has been in the works for about a year and now the streamer has set Peter Ocko (Lodge 49, Moonhaven) as its showrunner—and none other than James Wan as one of the executive producers.
The logline of the show, according to Variety, is “A giant tech conglomerate collaborates with the local police department to introduce a technologically advanced enforcer to combat rising crime—a police officer who’s part man, part machine.” So, basically, the plot of the first movie.
Last year, RoboCop was at the top of a list of properties Amazon wanted to resurrect after its acquisition of MGM. It’s unclear exactly what direction the show will take, or how it will be different from other iterations, but with Ocko’s experience (he’s also worked on The Leftovers, The Office, Elementary, Black Sails, and Pushing Daisies) and the vision of Wan’s company, Atomic Monster, you have a sense it’ll be tonally or thematically along the lines of that original film.
The original RoboCop was one of those movies that captured a moment. Adored by both adults who got it, and kids who did not, it was a big enough success that it spawned two sequels, was rebooted in 2014, and has had multiple iterations on TV. None of the TV versions were that memorable (though a late ’80s animated series did have 40 episodes), so you’d imagine most people don’t even know RoboCop was ever on the small screen.
Plus, this is Amazon. A company that spends about a gazillion dollars on Lord of the Rings. RoboCop isn’t quite Lord of the Rings in terms of name recognition but it’s well-known enough that you’d assume it’ll get a significant investment. Also, if the show is half as subversive, interesting, and fun as the original movie, it could be very intriguing.
So, what do we think here? Will people watch a RoboCop show? What can RoboCop do to make itself stand out? And, I think this is crucial, what will the character of RoboCop look like? Even though the 2014 remake was very, very bad, it went into the world at a huge disadvantage simply because the filmmakers redesigned that unforgettable, unmistakable, silver look of the original. A new version shouldn’t be the exact same suit but it should be pretty damn similar. At least that’s our feeling.
Let us know what you think about the idea of RoboCop not just coming back to the small screen but coming to Prime Video from this team.
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