by Ricky Church
Dead or alive, RoboCopfans are going to get a new interpretation as Amazon MGM has greenlit aRoboCop TV series from Blumhouse Atomic Monster.
RoboCop was released in 1987 from director Paul Verhoeven with Peter Weller starring as Detroit police officer Alex Murphy. When Murphy is killed in the line of duty, a powerful tech corporation uses his body to build him into the world’s first cyborg police unit dubbed RoboCop. As RoboCop targets the city’s criminal gangs and underworld, he slowly comes to grips with his past life as his humanity emerges and fights back against the greedy corporation’s agenda.
The series will follow the classic story as “a giant tech conglomerate convinces the city to place a powerful robot on its police force – a robot implanted with the consciousness of a beloved, fallen officer.”
RoboCop is being developed by Peter Ocko (Lodge 49) with Atomic Monster’s James Wan executive producing. OriginalRoboCop writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner will also executive produce.
“I’ve been a massive fan ofRobocopforever, so getting to help bring this world to television is a dream,” Wan said. “What Paul Verhoeven created in 1987 was decades ahead of its time, and its questions about technology, identity, and who corporations really serve have only grown more urgent. With Peter’s distinctive vision and bold approach to storytelling, and alongside Ed and our partners at Amazon MGM Studios, we’re working to honor what made the original iconic and highlight its relevancy in this modern, tech-driven world, while building something unmistakably new for a global audience.”
“Robocopis a franchise that has meant something to audiences for nearly four decades — not just as an action spectacle, but as a sharp, provocative mirror of our relationship with technology and power,” said Peter Friedlander, Head of Global Television, Amazon MGM Studios. “Peter Ocko has crafted a vision that honors the soul of what made the original so enduring while building something entirely fresh and urgent for today. Paired with the cinematic sensibility of James Wan and the team at Blumhouse Atomic Monster, we believe this series will captivate a whole new generation of fans on Prime Video.”
Throughout the almost four decades since its releaseRoboCop has remained a classic of the crop of 1980s action films with its social satire and examination of identity and humanity. The film spawned two sequels with Peter Weller returning in each one as well as a 2014 remake starring Joel Kinnaman as RoboCop.
