MGM is developing a new installment of RoboCop and has set District 9 director Neill Blomkamp to helm the picture, which is titled RoboCop Returns. The studio hopes to revive a franchise that began with the Paul Verhoeven-directed satirical sci-fi action thriller that Orion released in 1987. Original writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner are producing and exec producing, respectively. Justin Rhodes, who co-wrote the Terminator film that Tim Miller is shooting, will rewrite the script that Neumeier and Miner wrote years ago as a planned sequel to Verhoeven’s hit, an installment that never happened. That duo is creatively involved in moving forward their creation for the first time since the original.

The original starred Peter Weller as a badly wounded cop on death’s doorstep who is turned into a cyborg law enforcement officer tasked with wiping out crime in an out of control Detroit, but who is plagued by submerged memories of his previous married life. MGM revived the concept with a Jose Padilha-directed version that starred Joe Kinnaman in 2014. That film didn’t do so well domestically, but grossed $240 million worldwide and was particularly strong in China. MGM exec veep Adam Rosenberg is overseeing the new one for the studio.

I kind of have mixed feelings on these sequels that ignore other sequels. In this case neither the second or third film are as good as the first but like others I like Robocop 2 for a guilty pleasure movie.