MGM Selects New Director for 'RoboCop' Reboot

Out from under its financial burdens, MGM is pushing ahead with another profitable franchise from the vault.  The new management, Spyglass partners Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, have hired Brazilian filmmakerJose Padilhato rebootRoboCop, the gritty cyborg cop drama originally released in 1987 and directed by Paul Verhoeven.

According toDeadline, Padilha impressed executives with his work onElite SquadandElite Squad 2: The Enemy Within, which currently stands as the highest-grossing movie in his home country of Brazil.  No writer has been hired for the new take yet, so his vision for the source material is unclear.  The original centered on a Detroit police officer who nearly died in the line of duty, but was revived as part crime-fighting machine.

Black Swanfilmmaker Darren Aronofsky was attached to the project before MGM’s financial meltdown, but when production was halted to sort out its debt problem the director moved to Fox’sThe Wolverine, the clawed comic book follow-up starring Hugh Jackman.

RoboCop is one of several reboots in the works at MGM, including development on aPoltergeistredo, a Hercules movie, and remakes of’80s hitsMr. MomandThe Idolmaker.

MGM emerged fromChapter 11this year by converting its crippling $4.25 billion debt into equity.  Now they are producing Peter Jackson’stwo-partThe Hobbit(along with WB), developing the23rd James Bond movie, and finally setting release dates for shelved projectsThe Cabin in the WoodsandRed Dawnunder Sony’s distribution banner.

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