Abject indifference after the shitshows of Elysium and Chappie.
#metoo...mostly. Elysium's crap except for the badass mercenary antagonist. Bring him back for this Robocop movie and then we're talking.
Blomkamp has been getting away from what people liked about District 9 with each film, though. District 9 is a really dumb visual spectacle about a dude with a pew pew sci-fi gun killing dozens (hundreds?) of one-note bad people and allegorical racists one after another in an almost absurdist satire (the protagonist's plot armor is legendary). It works on that level, but I don't think Blomkamp realizes what level District 9 was working at, hah, since he has less shooting and more laughably self-serious messaging with each film.
There's that, but the Robocop reboot this is following was directed by José Padilha, who did Elite Squad 1&2 (watch both), and while I haven't seen the Robocop reboot I hear it's lame and neutered. I don't think studios really know what they want at this point. José Padilha's independent films in Brazil are hardcore and push the edge and leave an impact on you, just like Paul Verhoeven is known for and what he did in the proper original Robocop. But Hollywood took Padilha and had him make a neutered PG-13 thing that no one really wanted and mostly exists to milk the IP recognition. Padilha was vocally dissatisfied and almost walked during production, too, iirc.
Assessment: order Blomkamp to lay on the camp and the gunfights thick, have someone else write the screenplay, and rate it R.
Oh hey, someone else *is* writing the screenplay according to the OP, and Blomkamp's films have been R rated and Hollywood is increasingly open to hard R again post-Deadpool. Padilha's Robocop wasn't well-received and they're probably looking to soft reboot the soft reboot or whatever (edit: n/m direct sequel to 1984 original according to OP, cool), so an R here looks plausible. Has the potential to not suck, at least.
Probably gonna suck though. Watch Elite Squad 1 & 2
