Jose Padilha is out making his first major motion picture with MGM’s reboot of Robocop, and according to reports, he is bitter that the studio won’t let him do what he wants with the project.
Production is scheduled to begin shooting in September, but it hasn’t been a walk in the park for Padiha leading up to the first days of shooting. Collider has reported that Hotfix’s Drew McWheeny got his hands on a copy of the script and gave it a negative review. Also, just last week, talks with Hugh Laurie to play the film’s villain came to an abrupt end. Now it’s apparent that Padilha is having a hard time getting MGM to agree to his ideas for the movie, making it difficult for Padilha to get his vision across.
In a quote from Fernando Meirelles, a good friend of Padilha, Meirelles expressed Padilha’s strong dislike for the process.
“I talked to José Padilha for a week by phone. He will begin filming Robocop. He is saying that it is the worst experience. For every 10 ideas he has, 9 are cut. Whatever he wants, he has to fight… ‘This is hell here,’ he told me. ‘The film will be good, but I never suffered so much and do not want to do it again.’ He is bitter, but it’s a fighter.”
Despite being able to assemble an impressive cast with Joel Kinnaman as the lead, and Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Abbie Cornish, Jay Barchel and Michael K. Williams rounding out the supporting cast, the studio seems to really be at odds with what Padilha wants to do.
The talent that Padilha was able to round-up seems to bare no weight with the studio, hence his short leash. Hopefully, the two could come to terms with Robocop’s direction, so that this reboot is not a complete bust.
