District 9 director Neill Blomkamp was previously working on a new RoboCop project that would act as a direct sequel to the original 1987 movie, following in the footsteps of recent retcon sequels like Halloween in 2018 and this year’s Terminator: Dark Fate. But he left the project towards the end of this past summer, and now a new filmmaker is jumping into the director’s chair to take over the film being called RoboCop Returns.

The Hollywood Reporter has word that Little Monsters director Abe Forsythe is being lined up to take over as the RoboCop Returns director. The project has been in the works since the summer of 2018, and funnily enough, Terminator: Dark Fate writer Justin Rhodes is rewriting a scrip from the original RoboCop scribes Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner, who are both producing and executive producing the return of Detroit’s cyborg crimefighter. The original film’s production company, Orion, is also producing again along with Richard Suckle from Atlas Entertainment.

Forsythe is an up and coming Australian filmmaker. You can see his zombie horror comedy Little Monsters on Hulu right now (a movie which is an absolute blast). That’s more of a broad comedy with a lot of raunchy humor and blood, but our managing editor Jacob Hall informs me that Forsythe’s first movie, an Aussie comedy called Down Under, is “the kind of vicious satire you’d want in a RoboCop director.” Unfortunately, that movie never got released in the United States other than playing at Fantastic Fest some years ago

It remains to be seen if RoboCop Returns will be a direct sequel or the kind of sequel that Terminator: Dark Fate was where it also operated as a franchise reboot of sorts. Neumeier actually teased the project all the way back in January of 2018 and said this about the project:

“There’s been a bunch of other RoboCop movies and there was recently a remake and I would say this would be kind of going back to the old RoboCop we all love and starting there and going forward. So it’s a continuation really of the first movie. In my mind. So it’s a little bit more of the old school thing.”

Previously, when Neill Blomkamp was attached to direct RoboCop Returns, there was talk of not only bringing the original RoboCop suit back but possibly getting Peter Weller back as Alex Murphy. We’re not sure if there are any solid plans in place to make either of those things come to fruition, but we’re hoping for the best. Hopefully RoboCop fans are more eager to see the metal man of the law return than Terminator fans were for Dark Fate this month.