In 2022, Amazon acquired MGM and with it, the rights to RoboCop. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that Amazon would be priming the futuristic Detroit cop for both a television series and a tie-in film- with the television series set to arrive first.
Now, while in the midst of his press tour for Silent Night, Joel Kinnaman is sharing his thoughts on the RoboCop news while also reflecting on what he perceives to be a few missteps with his 2014 reboot.
'It was a cool experience. I think if I would have done it now, I think I would have inserted myself more into it," Kinnaman shared to Comicbook.
He added, "I love [director] José's [Padilha] concept into it. The one thing, I think, was lacking in that film, I like to be self-critical, I think that it was one of those films where I think, we who made it didn't fully take into account what RoboCop was for the fans. Tonally, that sort of [Paul] Verhoeven satire, because it's so ingrained in the RoboCop franchise and its being."
"It's different when a new filmmaker comes in and puts his voice on it, and José had a very clear image of what he wanted to do, it was an anti-Empirialistic take, and I think that movie would have done better if we had listened more to the fans beforehand. But I think it stands alone ... I almost think the RoboCop film we did would have been a better movie if it wouldn't have been named 'RoboCop.'"
Just before Amazon acquired MGM, the studio was working on a RoboCop movie with Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) that would have been a direct sequel to the first film, ignoring the sequels that followed.
Blomkamp ended up departing the project and Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters, Tripping Over) stepped in to replace him. However, Amazon's acquisition was approved shortly after Forsythe was onboarded and it's thought that Amazon is starting fresh with its plans for Alex Murphy.
The 2014 remake earned $242.7 million worldwide from a production budget of $100 million- meaning that the film was not a colossal failure but still fell just shy of breaking even for the studio.
Reviews for the film were abysmal with critics on Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 49% approval rating with an average score of 3.3 out of 5. General viewers were also disinterested in the remake, giving it a 49% audience score.
ROBOCOP 2014 SYNOPSIS
In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and OmniCorp – the world’s leader in robot technology – sees a golden opportunity to reap billions for their company. When Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) – a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit – is critically injured, OmniCorp grabs their chance to build a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and will stop at nothing – no matter the cost to Alex – to make sure the program succeeds. But OmniCorp never counted on one thing: there is still a man fighting inside the machine.