RoboCop Returns promised to be a continuation of Paul Verhoeven‘s 1987 original, in which a police officer named Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) was turned into a robotic police enforcer in a dystopian future Detroit which was on the verge of total collapse due to financial ruin and a high crime rate. The continuation would have been directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9), who seemed to indicate that Weller would be back in the original RoboCop suit.

However, Blomkamp has announced that he is now off RoboCop Returns. Instead, he will be directing a new horror feature. More on all of this in the full report below.

Back in 2014 a remake to Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi classic RoboCop was released. And while not as disastrous as some believed it would be, the remake did not fare too well critically or financially. Now another attempt at a new entry in the franchise has been announced.

MGM has begun developing RoboCop Returns, and they’ve brought in Neill Blomkamp to direct it. But the movie will not be another remake. Instead, they’re taking a similar approach to the latest in the Halloween franchise and making a direct sequel to Verhoeven’s original.