ROBOCOP RETURNS From DOWN UNDER to LITTLE MONSTERS

Abe Forsyth will direct Robocop Returns, which makes me want to dance like Lupita Nyong'o.

It's a natural progression for the Australian filmmaker, who made an impressive feature debut with his end-of-the-world comedy Down Under, as noted in my Fantastic Fest review. He followed that up with Little Monsters, which gained Hollywood stars Lupita Nyong'o and Josh Gad to go along with Alexander England, yet retained Forsyth's morbid sense of humor in splendid, splattery fashion. (Now streaming on Hulu and reviewed here).

Forsyth will write a new screenplay, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which is good news, if all goes as hoped. That would ensure a fresh approach to the Robocop character, who got a stiff, clanky reboot in Robocop (2014).

Really, though, a darkly comic and funny approach to the Robocop character would be more in keeping with the approach favored by writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner, who created the character in the first place. Director Paul Verhoeven pushed things even further than they had originally envisioned, and I think it's likely that they hoped for more in the same spirit when they penned a sequel script that never got the green light.

Instead, poor Peter Weller did his best in Robocop 2 (1990) and Robocop 3 (1993). With Neumeier and Miner on board as producers, and Forsyth rewriting a draft by Justin Rhodes, this project now sounds very promising.

Alex Murphy forever!