Unlike MGM's other rehashes pulled from their extensive library, Robocop has the most potential to be vastly different than the source material. That was part of the excitement when Jose Padilha(Elite Squad) was picked to direct, and most recently when Joel Kinnaman(The Killing) was chosen to take on the role of Alex Murphy, the man who would eventually serve and protect as the cyborg law officer. Their selection told us that this wasn't going to be your father's Robocop, and Kinnaman recently took to MTV to expound on this idea.
Paul Verhoeven's Robocop was certainly a product of the 1980s, a soldier of steel with very little humanity to speak of. He was a construct as much as anything else. But this is a new time, and science has improved greatly in the last twenty-five years, and Kinnaman says the neurological advances will be a major part of their film...
Kinnaman: "There’s a lot of neuroscience now raising the question, ‘Is all the intelligence in the human body in the brain?’ and they’re finding out that, no, it’s not like that. The body has intelligence itself, and we’re much more of an organic creature in that way. It’s not a control tower that does everything."
Even though Kinnaman isn't exactly a recognizable name or face, he's on his way there, and Robocop is an important step along the way. That may be part of the reason why this version will provide us a more human look at the character than we've previously seen...
Kinnaman: "Robocop is going to be a lot more human… this version is a much better acting piece, for Alex Murphy and especially when he is Robocop… It’s not going to be [just] jaw action. They’re still working on the suit and how it’s going to look, but the visor is going to be see-through. You’re going to see his eyes."
Clearly, Padilha is taking Robocop in a new direction, one that I think is going to ruffle a few feathers. To me, Robocop is one of those properties that worked in 1987 but looks silly now, so I don't think anybody should be beholden to it.
