LOS ANGELES – Jose Padilha, the director of the violent Brazilian ‘Elite Squad’ cop movies, is in talks to direct a remake of ‘Robocop.’ The 1987 original, directed by Paul Verhoeven, featured a cop who is brought back from the brink of death in the form of a cyborg with no memories of his prior life. It spawned two sequels. The remake is a big priority at the newly reconstituted MGM, which met with directors last week. Others on the list included Robert Rodriguez and David Slade (‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’) – with Padilha emerging a top cop.
No screenwriter is attached yet.’Robocop’ could act as the Hollywood debut for Padilha, whom the town has been high on since he directed 2007’s ‘Elite Squad,’ a Berlin Film Festival winner set on the mean streets of Rio de Janeiro. The film was distributed domestically by the Weinstein Co. His 2010 follow-up is the highest-grossing film in Brazil’s box office history, surpassing even Hollywood fare. It played at Sundance in January but has yet to secure a domestic deal. Padilha was attached at one stage to direct ‘The Sigma Protocol,’ an adaptation of a Robert Ludlum novel, but has since moved on.
