ROBOCOP Remake Halted: Another Reason to Love Darren Aronofsky

No, we don’t love Darren Aronofsky because we think a ROBOCOP remake is a horrible, awful idea and anything he can do to muck up the waterworks is A-okay in our book.  We, actually, are frothing at the mouth at the idea of Aronofsky making a run at the ROBOCOP reboot, hoping that his style and love for hard-hitting, edgy drama will kick both the film and us in the theater seat-filling ass.  No, the reason we love Aronofsky so much is because here is a man who knows when a studio is full of reactive, gimmick-hungry pinheads who wouldn’t know an original idea if it pulled a pistol from its holster and shot them between the legs.

And, so it goes with a report today from Moviehole that pre-production on the remake has been put on hold.  Evidently, Mary Parent, the chairperson of MGM, wants ROBOCOP to be shot in glorious, guts-in-your-face 3-D.  Aronofsky, to the immense credit the man deserves, gave her, the studio, and Leo the Lion the proverbial finger.

Actually, let’s let the scooper Moviehole got this information provide the details:

I’ve spoken with Phoenix Pictures [and] asked them about the status of ROBOCOP… they told me that the project is on hold. The problem is that Mary Parent, Chairperson of MGM,  wants a 3D movie for the new ROBOCOP. But ,as you know, Darren Aronofsky is a real artist and he’s not interested in Gimmicks like,3D,CGI,Filming digital, he wants to do everything as real (organic) as possible just like THE FOUNTAIN.

To which I say, “Bravo, Mr. Aronofsky.  You are a true man of your craft.”

Unfortunately, it hasn’t looked good for ROBOCOP in recent months, anyway, especially with all this auction/selling itself off to the highest bidder MGM is going through right now.

Of course, we can all thank James Cameron and the wonderful 3-D in AVATAR for putting this little bit of poison in the ear of studio execs around the world.  Every film and its brother are going to have their run through the 3-D gamut, and, it’s fortunate for all of us that there are still directors like Aronofsky out there who are willing to stand up for their craft and against this type of gimmick-idolatry.  It could, indeed, mean we’ll never get to see Aronofsky’s version of ROBOCOP, but at least the man stood up for what he believes.