As pre-production rolls on for sci-fi remake RoboCop so do the bad times, as after a scathing script review and losing Hugh Laurie as the film’s villain, director Jose Padilha has come out and said working on the film has been “hell.”
Coming via Padilha’s friend and fellow Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles (City of God, Blindness), Meirelles says that after speaking to Padilha on the phone, the director has labelled the production the “worst experience” and that “for every 10 ideas he has, 9 are cut; whatever he wants he has to fight.”
Thankfully (at the very least) even with Padilha stating “this is hell” he added to Meirelles that “the film will be good, but I never suffered so much and do not want to do it again.”
What remains to be seen is if this poor experience in Hollywood will drive the successful director of the smash “Elite Squad” films away from further action projects Stateside.
As for the aforementioned script review, that came courtesy of Drew McWeeny from HitFix who via a series of tweets lambasted the film, saying (amongst other things):
“When this thing hits theaters, people are going to call up Len Wiseman’s “Total Recall” on the phone and apologize for being so mean. “I’m sorry, ‘Total Recall.’ I had no idea how bad things could get. You’re starting to look like a masterpiece right about now.”
Concerning the villain situation, Clive Owen is currently being courted to step into Laurie’s role so hopefully that situation will be resolved promptly as principle photography looks to get underway. He would join Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson and Jay Baruchel, among others.
At this stage it’s truly looking like this is RoboCop’s fight to win with nothing seeming to have gone right so far (not to mention fans of Paul Verhoeven’s original have been crying out against the remake from the get-go).
RoboCop is scheduled for theaters August 9, 2013.
(Source: The Playlist)