MGM has hired Josh Zetumer to script their planned RoboCop remake with director Jose Padilha.
Zetumer seems to be an unusual candidate as he has no produced credits on his resume. He has been able to land some development deals in the past including working on a new adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel Dune and an ultimately abandoned draft for a fourth Jason Bourne film. He also landed on 2007’s Black List with a political thriller called Infiltrator.
Padilha and Zetumer will “collaborate closely” on the screenplay according to Deadline. As to what form that collaboration will take remains a bit of a mystery for right now. Did Zetumer come in with a pitch that Padilha will be fine tuning during the writing process or is it Zetumer who is bringing shape to ideas that Padihla wants to explore in the film? Will they retain the original film’s satiric edge?
The only thing of Zetumer’s that I have access to at the moment is his Black List script Infiltrator, but I haven’t read it yet, so I can’t say what sensibility he brings to the project. We can see from his Brazilian film Elite Squad and its sequel that Padilha knows how to tell a story of police and public official corruption, a staple of the RoboCop universe. Hopefully the two will complement each other in a way that will produce a good movie.
