'RoboCop' Remake Tries to Stay On Course

That Darren Aronofsky-led remake of RoboCop may have to wait a while. The Hollywood Reporter says that the director has been shopping his supernatural film Black Swan,which is set to star Natalie Portman. The reason Swan can't wait another year is because Aronofsky has tracked down enough financing to get started and with Portman's recent agreement to co-star in Thor, that rules out pretty much any availability for her in the first quarter of 2010. But MGM, the studio that is remaking not just RoboCop but Red Dawn and Poltergeist, as well, may not want to wait around for Aronofsky to sow his indie oats. The studio has reportedly been quietly trying to find replacements should the Wrestler director not be ready to go on MGM's schedule. Metro wouldn't comment, not that you could blame anyone at the studio for declining, but in the grand scheme of things, this is a very important project for them. The MGM name is better known than most of its movies in the past half-decade or so, save the two Bond and two Pink Panther movies, and it is not the major power broker it used to be. So unlike a Warner Bros., which made so much money with Dark Knight it could afford to move a damn Harry Potter movie of its 2008 schedule, MGM kind of has to put all of its eggs in a few baskets. Currently, MGM has RoboCop as one of its key 2011 releases and Aronofsky is trying to launch Black Swan this fall. There would still be a little over a year to make Robocop, but Aronofsky isn't Spielberg; he doesn't have a history making big, expensive films, so whether or not he could knuckle down and make this one quickly appears to be the issue. Also, a smaller window means there's less available time after the fact for potential re-shoots. I have no idea if he's the right guy for the job or not, but few directors lay as much at the feet of the psychology of his characters than does Aronofsky. From that standpoint, I'm really curious to see what he could do with RoboCop. The action stuff concerns me a little bit (which is where the possibility of re-shoots comes into play), but I think MGM would be better off accommodating the director who's been working on the script for the update already and has a vision for the project rather than hiring a guy off the street to hit an opening weekend on time.

Comments

[Charcole]

They should get Brett Ratner. He works fast.
If they can't wait for a director who has made all great films, then just get some hack and have a shitty Robocop. And if Ratner is busy, then how about Rob Bowman, he sucks just as bad... maybe even a little worse.

[Emo]

I'm not a fan of this