The promotion machine for the Robocop remake has begun. Helmed by José Padilha (The Elite Squad I and II), the film is set for a 2013 release, with Joel Kinnaman (AMC’s The Killing, which is nothing more than a mediocre 21st century Twin Peaks knock-off) playing Robocop; Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Laurie (House), and Abbie Cornish (Limitless) are also tied to the project. While the details surrounding the new Robocop are sparse, MGM and Sony Entertainment are funding the project, supposedly spending $100 million on the venture. Recently a website for Omnicorp (OCP, or Omni Consumer Products, in Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 version) was launched, featuring a promotional video for the fictitious weapons manufacturer.
The website hints that Padilha’s Robocop will touch on themes that make Verhoeven’s film so impactful—man/machine hybridity, police oppression, the military industrial complex—but from a contemporary standpoint. The Omnicorp video features the redesigned ED-209 (left) but also discusses unmanned drones, which have been used by the United States military for years and will supposedly start patrolling American cities by the end of the decade. The site only delivers a hint of what Robocop will look like, referring to it as the RC-2000 project (said to be in development), but at least the film’s politics are fairly apparent. While many, including myself, are skeptical about the new Robocop it is possible the film will succeed, especially if it touches on technological issues pertinent to personal liberties. One can only hope.
