Not so new RoboCop news

But if you hadn't seen it yet, it's news to you, as it was to me today. After a rumor circulated that Darren Aronofsky may no longer be directing MGM's re-up of RoboCop, Ain't It Cool News reported that in a direct conversation with Aronofsky himself, he remarked:

"No, still on it."

Now again, this "news" is about 2 weeks old, but it stirred up that familiar vortex of conflicting emotions that this project always stirs for me.

The original RoboCop is one of the best science fiction movies ever made. It's level of intelligence gets severely underestimated (no doubt because of the decade in which it was made and that its title is RoboCop, and not The Thin Red Line)

Regardless. When the news first hit the public that a re-imagining of RoboCop was forthcoming, I wanted to cry. Even though recent re-ups of Batman and Star Trek have been impressive, it seemed inevitable that a new RoboCop would strip away all of the ideas and truly shocking violence of the original in favor of one-liners and chase scenes.

But then I heard Aronofsky would direct. And that it would be rated R. Now I don't know what to think.

In related news, the expected 2010 release of Aronofsky's RoboCop has been pushed to 2011. That news is about three weeks old. But come on now, I only crawl out of my cave when the conditions are just so.