This was already feeling pretty likely in our guts but in what is the strongest indication yet of a Darren Aronofsky departure, Phoenix Pictures have revealed that their “RoboCop” reimagining is now officially on hold over creative differences with the director.
“I’ve spoken with Phoenix Pictures [and] asked them about the status of “RoboCop,” a writer from Robocop Archive reports [via Moviehole]. “They told me that the project is on hold. The problem is that Mary Parent, Chairperson of MGM, wants a 3D movie for the new ‘RoboCop.’ But, as you know, Darren Aronofsky is a real artist and he’s not interested in gimmicks like 3D, CGI, filming digital. He wants to do everything as real (organic) as possible just like ‘The Fountain.’ “
While the sources aren’t exactly the trades, Aronofsky has already spoken out against 3-D and coupled with MGM’s well-known financial problems and the success of “Avatar,” it all seems very, very reasonable. Furthermore, Aronofsky was probably already off the project when he reunited with Fox Searchlight for “Black Swan.” — last official word from the director on “RoboCop” came June last year when he wrote to AICN stating he was “still on it” but a month later THR later reported in “Black Swan” announcements that the studio was already putting out “feelers for others directors.”
More obvious evidence to the off-“RoboCop”-for-good posit, is that Aronofsky has since signed onto to do an untitled indie-heist-thriller based on the $92.5 million dollar robbery of an English depot in 2006. He presumably still has his ambitious biblical epic about “Noah’s Ark” in mind at some point (though that sounds too ambitious for these days) and is filming “Black Swan” which is due to hit theaters later in the year.
Aronofsky’s take on “RoboCop” sounds exactly like his take on “The Dark Knight” was: way too gritty and realistic for studio that wants to go broad and big. “My pitch was always very realistic, he told Contact Music in 2007. “I wasn’t interested in fantasy, I was interested in the psychology of a real man dressing in a disguise to pay out real vengeance. “The Batmobile was a souped-up Lincoln Continental with a bus engine. It was technical and rusty and extremely violent. They would have never let us have violence.”
Yup, seems like once again, he’s on a different page with studio heads and really, thank god for that.