Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Chappie) had recently been attached to direct a reboot of the RoboCop franchise for MGM, set to be a decades-later sequel to Paul Verhoeven’s original classic. Blomkamp had been saying that it’d definitely be rated “R” and would feature the original suit, perhaps even the return of Peter Weller, but alas, it’s just not meant to be.

Taking to Twitter this morning, Blomkamp announced that he’s no longer directing RoboCop for MGM. That’s the bad news. The good news? He’s directing a horror movie instead.

Blomkamp tweeted, “Off Robocop. I am shooting new horror/thriller and MGM can’t wait/need to shoot Robocop now. Excited to watch it in theaters with other fans.”

This is a serious bad news/good news situation, as it’s a huge bummer to hear that Blomkamp is off RoboCop but it’s also hugely exciting to hear that he’s making a horror movie. We have no details on this mysterious “horror/thriller” at this time, but Blomkamp’s recent work under the Oats Studios umbrella suggests he could make one kickass horror movie.

Blomkamp, you may recall, had once upon a time been set to direct a sequel to James Cameron’s Aliens. That project, as far as we’re aware, is still very much dead in the water.