For years, MGM has been trying to bring RoboCop back to theaters. The studio is still developing RoboCop Returns, a direct sequel to the original 1987 film based on a premise that Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner cooked up while they were still attached to write RoboCop 2 in 1988. But while speaking with Moviehole, Neumeier revealed that he’s currently interested in exploring the backstory of another pivotal character from the first movie. If Neumeier gets his wish, we could be getting a prequel series centering on a young Dick Jones.
According to Neumeier, the concept initially came from writers Dave Parkin and Rob Gibbs, who pitched it to a “TV producer friend” of Neumeier’s before the idea eventually made its way to him. Admittedly, a TV show revolving around “all the cool stuff about RoboCop except no RoboCop” seems like a tough sell. But Neumeier insists that a lot can be done with an “interesting character” like Jones. Plus, it sounds like the series would retain RoboCop’s satirical flavor.
“There’s the idea of doing things about business and law enforcement in the city of Detroit a minute-and-a-half in the future,” said Neumeier. “It would be a way to do all sorts of stories about business and tech, Silicon Valley, corporations, snakes in suits, cops, all that. It’s a wonderful rich tapestry. So we’ve been talking about it and I think we have an interesting story. It’s fun to work with a younger version of the Dick Jones we meet in RoboCop. He’s an actualised corporate predator [in the move] but nobody necessarily starts out being the bad guy.”
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“So it’s going to be about the evolution of Richard Jones to Dick Jones,” continued Neumeier. “The story of OCP and how the world moves into the future, how the corporate world behaves.”
Jones, as played by Ronny Cox, debuted in RoboCop as the senior vice president of Omni Consumer Products. He was the brains behind the ED-209 law enforcement robot, but he was quickly outshined by Bob Morton’s RoboCop program. Unfortunately for Morton, Jones also had Clarence Boddicker’s gang of criminals in his pocket. He would later use his corporate influence to make more trouble for the titular cyborg policeman.
Would you like to see a RoboCop spinoff series featuring a young Dick Jones? Who would you cast to play the character? Tell us what you think in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading – RoboCop: The Definitive History: The Story of a Sci-Fi Icon
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