Josh Zetumer To Script ROBOCOP Reboot

MGM hires Josh Zetumer to script ‘Robocop’ reboot and confirms the hiring of director Joe Padilha.

Deadline reports that MGM have hired writer Josh Zetumer to script the reboot of Paul Verhoeven’s ‘RoboCop.’

The original 1987 sci-fi classic told of a mortally wounded law officer who becomes part of a corporate experiment in which his remains are encased in a robotic suit and unleashed on the city’s felons.

The Deadline article also confirms that the studio has hired Brazilian director Jose Padilha. The director is best known for cop franchise ‘Elite Squad’ and the documentary ‘Bus 174.’

Zetumer wrote the script ‘Infiltrator,’ a spy thriller that is currently set up at Warner Bros. with Leonardo DiCaprio attached to star. His also wrote drafts of ‘Dune’ back when Peter Berg was going to direct that remake, and he scripted a fourth installment of The Bourne Identity before Universal instead developed a spinoff with Tony Gilroy.

MGM, back in business after coming out of bankruptcy, has targeted ‘Robocop’ as the first franchise in its reemergence plan.