There's some weight hitting behind the remake of RoboCop, and while it's not a Darren Aronofsky version I was delighted to find that José Padilha was directing the remake, I mean think about Ônibus 174 (Bus 174) (Filmstalker review), Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite) (Filmstalker review) and Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (Filmstalker review), excellent films and a brilliant style to make a tough and gritty RoboCop.

Now there's a writer to match and the studio haven't just thrown a brand new writer or a populist adaptation writer at the project, it's the writer of Gran Torino (Filmstalker review).

Nick Schenk is a relatively new writer if you remove Gran Torino from his credit list, but that is a damn fine credit to have on your list and one which I think serves him in good stead for RocoCop. Why do I say that? Well it's not a comic or video game adaptation, he's not from that mould which would suggest that the studio are continuing with taking a very different view of this project that the first film.

I'm not a huge fan of remakes, and the thing that had me excited about the remake of RoboCop initially was the fact that Darren Aronofsky was leading the project, but I'm more excited that José Padilha is directing and with Schenk set to write the script I'm piqued just a little bit more.

There is another interesting titbit in the The Hollywood Reporter story about the writer that is also worth noting, he has been working with Padilha on the thriller Tri-Border, the one about the area between three South American countries that is generally lawless.

All this spells nothing but good things for the RoboCop remake and is promising us something completely new. I'm now desperate for this to move forward.