It was announced today that District 9 director Neill Blomkamp is tackling Robocop Returns and now, the director has confirmed that it will be an R-rated affair. Original writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner are producing and executive producing, respectively, while Justin Rhodes will rewrite the script that Neumeier and Miner wrote years ago as a planned sequel to the original 1987 movie, which was directed by Peter Verhoeven. Their original script never made it into a sequel due to a writer's strike.

In a Twitter exchange, a fan tweeted at Neill Blomkamp to make sure that the RoboCop Returns movie will have an R-rating along with some satire and exploding Squibs. Blomkamp promptly responded and simply said, "there will be all of these things." The exploding Squibs might be a bit extreme, but a gritty R-rating will do wonders for the film as we see Alex Murphy come back yet again. The new RoboCop Returns will have nothing to do with the reboot that was released a few years ago, which is probably a good thing.

José Padilha's 2014 reboot of the RoboCop franchise was looked down upon amongst fans and critics. Neill Blomkamp is attempting to make a proper sequel to the 1987 film with the original writers on board. The director says that he agreed to do the new project because he loved the first movie so much when he was a kid. Throughout his life, Blomkamp found different things to admire about RoboCop. He had this to say.

"At first, the consumerism, materialism, and Reaganomics, that '80s theme of America on steroids, came through most strongly. But as I've gotten older, the part that really resonated with me is identity, and the search for identity."

While many are excited about RoboCop Returns with Neill Blomkamp at the helm and a story from the original writers, there are plenty of people that are pretty skeptical about the project. The last reboot was in development forever, only to come out and barely break even. It seems that the studio (or all studios) will keep coming back to the familiar franchises to see if they can get anything to stick, which has several fans upset about tarnishing the legacy of the original 1987 film.

While reboot fatigue is understandable, MGM seems to be taking the right roads to get the new RoboCop Returns made. While Neill Blomkamp is new to the franchise, he's getting the original story that was intended by original writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner with some tweaks by Justin Rhodes, who wrote the screenplay for Terminator 6. Blomkamp should be able to deliver the gritty R-rated version of Alex Murphy to the masses that will hopefully satisfy new and old fans of the Robocop franchise. More news is expected to be announced in the months to come. Until then, check out the funny exchange that revealed the R-rating below, thanks to Neill Blomkamp's Twitter account.

There will be all these things — Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) July 11, 2018