{"id":21661,"date":"2012-08-13T11:01:35","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T15:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=21661"},"modified":"2012-08-13T11:01:35","modified_gmt":"2012-08-13T15:01:35","slug":"the-word-on-the-robocop-remake-script-is-in-and-it-isnt-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2012\/08\/13\/the-word-on-the-robocop-remake-script-is-in-and-it-isnt-good\/","title":{"rendered":"The  Word On The ROBOCOP Remake Script Is In And It Isn\u2019t Good"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/RoboCop.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"300\" \/>It seems while everyone else was watching the NBC\u2019s butchered rebroadcast of the London Olympics Closing Ceremony, HitFix\u2019s Drew McWeeny was reading the latest draft of MGM\u2019s planned remake of <strong>Robocop<\/strong>. And the experience was so bad that he took <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/DrewAtHitFix\" target=\"_blank\">twitter<\/a>\u00a0to share his thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re not familiar with McWeeny\u2019s work, it was his championing of Will Farrell\u2019s script for <strong>Anchorman<\/strong> back when he was writing for Aint It Cool News under the name of Moriarty that got the script into production. He was also the one who \u201couted\u2019 the J J Abrams <strong>Superman<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aintitcool.com\/node\/13350\" target=\"_blank\">reboot screenplay<\/a> that recast Lex Luthor as a Kryptonian. The fan outrage from that review was what got Warner Brothers to head back to the drawing board and pick a new writer. For these two reasons alone, and not even factoring in the countless other script reviews he ran in his time at AICN, that I tend to give credence to his opinions on screenwriting.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I tried to read the &#8220;Robocop&#8221; remake, but 20 pages in my nose started bleeding and I forgot my name. #nobueno #reallynobueno<\/p>\n<p>Joshua Zetumer with revisions by Nick Schenk. It&#8217;s just a complete rebuilding of it, and I hate pretty much every choice.<\/p>\n<p>Frighteningly wrong-headed.<\/p>\n<p>I will try this again once my blood pressure&#8217;s gone down. But, seriously, folks, &#8220;Robocop&#8221; was already perfect.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll share this one detail. In the film, when Murphy is turned into Robocop 1.0, it&#8217;s described &#8220;a high-tech version of the &#8217;80s suit.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Then they show a focus group scene where criminals laugh at the design. &#8220;He looks like a toy from the &#8217;80s!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So they redesign him to look &#8220;meaner&#8221; as Robocop 2.0, who passes focus group approval.<\/p>\n<p>So they not only make sure to include the original design, they also point out it&#8217;s dated and stupid. *facepalm*<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, they&#8217;re full speed ahead right now. With this script.<\/p>\n<p>Hold onto your sides for more hilarious &#8220;Robocop&#8221; details. They outsource his construction to China. #seriously<\/p>\n<p>And we meet the ED-209s in the field in Iran, where they&#8217;re used to subdue suicide bombers. #ineedallthedrinksnow<\/p>\n<p>Short version: this script makes my stomach hurt very, very badly.<\/p>\n<p>Ahhh&#8230; now they just dropped Robocop 3.0 onto an Al Queda training camp to see what he does.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He should be programmed to incapacitate in all scenarios.&#8221; &#8220;Agreed. Let&#8217;s keep him PG-13, Dr. Norton.&#8221; No. No. No. No.<\/p>\n<p>By page 54, they are already onto Robocop 4.0, who looks like a &#8220;cop on steroids painted metallic blue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Oh, god&#8230; oh dear god&#8230; Robocop is a Transformer. He goes from &#8220;social mode&#8221; to &#8220;combat mode&#8221; and back. Full transformation.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to go stand in my backyard and scream at the moon for a while. My brain needs a shower.<\/p>\n<p>Write it down. Page 55, the &#8220;Robocop&#8221; remake beat me. I&#8217;m done. I can&#8217;t hurt more than this.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s tough to determine tone on the page, but &#8220;satire&#8221; seems low on their list of priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Okay&#8230; the two &#8220;best&#8221; lines in the script. First up is at the unveiling ceremony for Robocop in Detroit, from a TV reporter covering it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s safe to say that Alex Murphy is now part man, part machine, ALL COP!&#8221; Yes, I too remember the original poster, asshat.<\/p>\n<p>Second, after the traumatic first meeting with his father, Alex&#8217;s son retreats to the apartment of Lewis, Murphy&#8217;s male partner.<\/p>\n<p>The scene ends with the action line &#8220;David sits, catatonic, looks at the TV &#8212; MGM REMAKE TBD.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It means &#8220;to be determined.&#8221; They haven&#8217;t decided which of their other movies to plug with that clip. Yet.<\/p>\n<p>Awesome. &#8220;Since we&#8217;ve got them in the theater, let&#8217;s make sure we plug another horrible remake of ours.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I feel like one of those little potato people staring directly into The Dark Crystal. And, yet, pages keep turning&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Good god&#8230; it just keeps topping itself. It&#8217;s like someone wrote a script scientifically fine-tuned to destroy me.<\/p>\n<p>Someone shows Pope, head of the OCP project, some mock-ups for Robocop action figures. &#8220;Are you kidding? I wouldn&#8217;t buy that for a dollar!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, that just happened. NOT SO FUNNY NOW, IS IT?!<\/p>\n<p>When this thing hits theaters, people are going to call up Len Wiseman&#8217;s &#8220;Total Recall&#8221; on the phone and apologize for being so mean.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry, &#8216;Total Recall.&#8217; I had no idea how bad things could get. You&#8217;re starting to look like a masterpiece right about now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Oh, much worse, yes. The Abrams Superman had amazing action sequences in it, and JP4 is batshit crazy but I&#8217;d watch it.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll say this: once the script stops all the winky-winky crap and just starts telling a story, it&#8217;s not terrible. But it&#8217;s way too late.<\/p>\n<p>If you can get past Robocop The Transformer, there are some interesting action beats. And I&#8217;m sure Padilla will direct the hell out of it.<\/p>\n<p>But overall? Ouch. Ouch. Ohpleasedon&#8217;t. Ouch. And a big side order of ouch.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ouch indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">Wrong move, creeps.<\/div>\n<p> <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2012\/08\/13\/the-word-on-the-robocop-remake-script-is-in-and-it-isnt-good\/\" title=\"The  Word On The ROBOCOP Remake Script Is In And It Isn\u2019t Good\">[click for more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[3544],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"tag-robocop"},"aioseo_notices":[],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21661"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=21661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}