Nearly 40 years after Robocop first released, the sci-fi action film about a cyborg police officer is heading to television.
Per Deadline, a Robocop TV show is moving forward at Amazon MGM Studios, with Peter Ocko tapped as the writer, executive producer, and showrunner. Ocko is a veteran television writer, having worked on The Office, The Leftovers, Black Sails, and Lodge 49.
One of the leading horror producers in Hollywood, James Wan, will produce the Robocop TV show through his Atomic Monster banner. Wan’s recent credits include directing Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and producing Night Swim and Salem’s Lot.
First announced in April 2023, the television adaptation will feature a similar premise to the films. The show will see a tech conglomerate and police department combine forces to introduce a police officer who is half-man and half-machine, with the hope of reducing the high crime rate.
Directed by Paul Verhoeven, 1987’s Robocop starred Peter Weller as Alex Murphy, a Detroit police officer murdered while on duty. A major tech corporation, Omni Consumer Products (OCP), converts Murphy’s body into Robocop, a highly skilled cyborg who becomes an indestructible police officer. The violent film grossed $53 million on a $13 million budget. In the years following its release, Robocop has become a cult classic and is cited as an influential sci-fi film of the 1980s.
Robocop spawned two inferior sequels — RoboCop 2 and Robocop 3 — and a stunningly mediocre 2014 reboot starring Joel Kinnaman. The sci-fi film also served as the basis for two live-action and two animated shows.
No casting news or filming dates have been announced for the Robocop TV show.
