When does artificial intelligence stop being a friend of humanity and start actively menacing it? How much authority can a law enforcer be given before corruption and fascism sets in? Neither of those Verhoeveny questions is answered by this new **RoboCop **trailer, but loads of stuff blows up and we're pretty much okay with that.
brightcove.createExperiences();The new-look **RoboCop **finds us in the year 2028, with multinational conglomerate OmniCorp (look out for Michael Keaton as CEO Raymond Sellar) at the centre of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years, and it’s meant billions for OmniCorp’s bottom line. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it.
When Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) – a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit – is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and even more billions for their shareholders, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine pursuing justice. Coming Soon has spotted a new poster with the man... well, robo-man, strutting his stuff. Along with that and the trailer, Yahoo! Movies asked José Padilha, the film's director, to give a little context to his Robo-remake and explain how he's gone about bringing Paul Verhoeven's 1987 sci-fi ideas back to the screen.
"It's based on the original movie, which was ahead of its time both aesthetically and thematically," says Padilha, praising the prescience of Verhoeven's original. "We already have the drones and now we're going to have automated robots doing law enforcement and replacing soldiers on the battlefield. We had the chance to make this movie and talk about that."
Find out if the Brazilian director can bring similar satirical force to bear when **RoboCop **arrives in the UK on February 7.