Earlier today I was fortunate enough to interview José Padilha ahead of the UK home entertainment release of Elite Squad: The Enemy Within and the Brazilian filmmaker answered a few questions about his next project, the upcoming remake of Paul Verhoeven's cult 1987 classic, RoboCop. Check out what he had to say... The original RoboCop shares many similar themes with your previous films. Is that what drew you to the project?
Actually, no. I like several things about RoboCop. The idea of having a man having actual body parts replaced by a computerised existence and the idea of a corporation taking control of this man and turning him into a product... this idea is very modern and very, very truthful. I mean you can talk about all sorts of important social issues and tendencies nowadays exploring the RoboCop concept. And you know, I bet you that in 30 years from now wars will only be fought by drones and law enforcement will be populated by drones and automatic systems. That creates a host of ethical issues, a lot of questions that have not been answered. Another interesting thing about RoboCop is that it allows you to talk about the philosophic mind/body problem, which is can a computer system be conscious? What does it mean to be conscious? Can you consider a robotic entity ethically guilty of a crime, or is the corporation that made the robot guilty? All those issues are the core of the RoboCop concept and those are the ones that drew me to the project.
Michael Fassbender recently said that "it could be kind of fun" to don the RoboCop suit. Is he still on your shortlist?
I am a Michael Fassbender fan - I love his work and I think he is a fantastic actor. The reason he said this I believe was that I had given an interview in Holland a couple of months ago in which a Dutch journalist asked me, 'who would you consider for RoboCop', and I had to really stop and think about it. So I said to the Dutch guy, 'I don't know', and he said, 'if you had to say one name, who is a great actor?' And so I said Michael Fassbender, and immediately the Dutch guy cast him for RoboCop [laughs]... which would be great by the way.
When might we expect to hear some casting news on RoboCop?
I'm actually working on the script rewrite now to get it ready and once I have the script ready I'm going to start working on the cast. I like to have a good script before I show it to talent, you know? I'm not quite there... I'm almost there, but not there yet.
The first mention of a reboot to the RoboCop franchise came in 2005, with director Darren Aronofsky becoming attached to the project three years later. Following Aronofsky's departure, MGM turned to José Padilha, who secured the gig in March 2011 after the success of Elite Squad and Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (the latter overtaking James Cameron's Avatar to become the highest-grossing movie of all-time in his native Brazil). It was later reported that screenwriter Joshua Zetumer would tackle scriptwriting duties on the reboot, having provided uncredited rewrites to Daniel Craig's last Bond outing, Quantum of Solace, and the studio were said to be looking at stars such as Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Chris Pine and Keanu Reeves for the lead role of Alex Murphy before X-Men: First Class, Shame and Prometheus star Fassbender came into the mix.
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within is released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 26th. Check back later this month for the full interview.
Gary Collinson
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