In a recent interview, the new RoboCop himself, Joel Kinnaman (‘The Killing’, ‘The Darkest Hour’), had a few things to say about his upcoming film. The most interesting though is that the filmmakers did “not try to remake the movie”. With the latest trailer showing a few nods to the original as well as some of the same concepts, let’s go to the full quote to get some expansion on that statement.

“It’s a great responsibility. Especially in a world where there’s a lot of remakes being made for cynical economic reasons. But having José as a director washed away those fears. The biggest respect you can pay to the original is to acknowledge it as a very intelligent movie, and try to make something intelligent to follow it up with, and not just replay old catchphrases. We kept one or two as a wink to the fans, but we did not try to remake the movie.”

So what it boils down to is that Kinnaman feels they are paying respect to the original movie and giving a few winks to the fans, but this is a whole different take on the film. Of course, if this isn’t a follow up to the original films and we’re using the same characters doing pretty much the same things, I’m pretty sure that this would land in the reboot territory. Don’t get me wrong. I’m extremely eager to see the film but they are in essence remaking the original film to modernize it, right?

He does seem to want to deny that it’s a remake to the fullest, however, as when he “first heard there was gonna be a ‘RoboCop’ remake, I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll see that somewhere down the line. But it’s nothing I’m interested in pursuing myself.’ Then when I heard it was José Padilha that was gonna direct it, I became very interested. José has fought very hard and succeeded in making something that has a point of view, and a political and philosophical perspective.”

With all that, I do have to say that I’m excited. I really feel that they are taking some of the concepts from the original ‘RoboCop’ film and really expanding on them. At least that’s the vibe I’ve been getting from all of the early previews and interviews.

So folks do you think we’re going to be getting a completely original film here with only a few nods to the original or does Kinnaman  have no idea what he’s talking about and we’re actually getting a reboot?

Synopsis:

In ‘RoboCop’, the year is 2029 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex’s life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.

‘Robocop’ stars Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldmann, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Abbie Cornish and Jackie Earle Haley and will be in theaters on February 7th, 2014.

Source: SFX