I always thought Robocop was a great idea.  Cop dies in the line of duty, they rebuild him as a cyborg supercop who goes back to work and settles some old scores that he may or may not remember having…. lots of butt kicking ensues.  Fun stuff!  Show me a dystopic, futuristic film with greedy corporations getting punked by their own products and cyborgs with big, crazy guns and I’m on board.  MGM has been working on bringing this iconic eighties film back to the silver screen and has decided that Brazilian director Jose Padhila is just the man to do it.

Padhila is the controversial director of Elite Squad and Elite Squad 2 (Tropa de Elite), the latter of which broke Brazilian box office records and is the highest grossing film to date in that country.  Elite Squad is based on a true story about Brazilian cops and the lengths they will go to.  (You might have seen news stories over the years about some of the stuff Brazilian cops have done like executing homeless street kids in the middle of the night while they were sleeping). Variety slammed the film  calling it “a one-note celebration of violence-for-good that plays like a recruitment film for fascist thugs.”   Elite Squad seems to be both an homage to the men in blue and an expose of corruption.  The Berlin film festival awarded it with the top honor of the Golden Bear so it can’t be all that bad. I think the gritty cinematography and direction shows Padhila to be more than capable of pulling off a Robocop remake.  Check out the trailer for Elite Squad and see for yourself.

Elite Squad Trailer

[Source: THR]

• Tweet