RoboCop Star Joel Kinnaman Revealed His Theory On Why The Reboot Failed
Even though there are times when the remake is better than the original film, the 2014 reboot of the 1987 sci-fi social satire "RoboCop" fell short of those aspirations — and its star is revealing his theory as to why.
Director Paul Verhoeven's original "RoboCop" became a cult classic thanks to its irreverent tone and memorable menacing characters like Kurtwood Smith's villainous Clarence Boddicker. However, it was Peter Weller's iconic turn as Alex Murphy — a Detroit police officer who is transformed into the cyborg law enforcement machine after Boddicker brutally attempts to execute him — that made RoboCop a movie icon.
Followed by sequels in 1990 and 1993, the "RoboCop" franchise powered down for a couple of decades until director José Padilha's reboot of the original film with Joel Kinnaman assuming the role of Murphy. Sadly, the "RoboCop" reboot ended up being a one-and-done project for everybody involved, and nearly 10 years after its release, Kinnaman said he has a good idea why the film never completely took off with fans.
"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 told Comic Book. "I love José's 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 Verhoeven satire, because it's so ingrained in the 'RoboCop' franchise and its being."
Kinnaman thinks his RoboCop movie should have been called something else
Further commenting on how the "RoboCop" reboot should have been made more with the original film's fans in mind, Joel Kinnaman didn't necessarily criticize José Padilha's vision for the material. In fact, given the stark differences between the original and the remake, Kinnaman thinks the film would have been better off if was forged as a new piece of hardware.
"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," Kinnaman observed for Comic Book. "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.'"
Padilha's 2014 version of "RoboCop" did solid business in theaters with a global box office take of nearly $243 million against a $120 million budget. However, the returns weren't big enough for Sony Pictures Entertainment to continue with the franchise with Padilha and Kinnaman.
The most recent attempt to revive the character came in 2018 when it was announced that a new "RoboCop" movie was coming from "District 9" and "Chappie" director Neill Blomkamp. A year later, the reboot, titled "RoboCop Returns" — a reported sequel to Paul Verhoeven's original "RoboCop" films — lost Blomkamp and the project has been languishing in development ever since.