It might be a good idea of Neill Blomkamp to avoid established franchises and stick to original stuff, because he's had no luck with them so far. The District 9, Elysium, and Chappie director had been attached to Alien 5, going so far as to share detailed concept art for the sequel, but it fell through for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with Disney's acquisition of Fox. He moved from that to Robocop Returns, a successor to the 1987 classic based on that writer's script. Well, you can forget about that one happening, too.
Blomkamp took to social media and revealed that he is "off" Robocop Returns, and will now focus his attention on a new horror movie...
Off Robocop. I am shooting new horror/thriller and MGM can’t wait/ need to shoot Robocop now. Excited to watch it in theaters with other fans. N— Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) August 15, 2019
While his wording is a bit confusing because it's Twitter, it reads like this horror movie beat Robocop Returns to the punch and producers weren't willing to wait for him to finish. What's next for the film is unclear. Justin Rhodes was in the process of rewriting a script by Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner, writers of the original Robocop. The plan was to do something similar to Terminator Dark Fate, by ignoring previous sequels and doing a straight follow-up to Paul Verhoeven's classic movie.
Hopefully we get more info Blomkamp's horror movie and the future of Robocop soon.
