Just a few days ago, Fernando Meirelles, director of "City of God," was quoted as saying that his friend Jose Padilha, currently hard at work on his Hollywood debut, a remake of "RoboCop," was having a terrible time on the film. "For every 10 ideas he has, 9 are cut," Meirelles told a South American website. But wait! A Brazilian newspaper (via Latino Review) interviewed Padilha and it seems that he's actually totally fine. Why you trying to start shit, Meirelles?
“I have a script I’m happy with and I got the cast I have picked," Padilha. And what a cast it is, by the way, just to remind everyone. This thing has – Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Abbie Cornish, Jennifer Ehle, Michael K.Williams, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and now Michael Keaton, taking over for a bad guy role recently vacated by Hugh Laurie. (Definite upgrade – Beetlejuice trumps House any day.) Padilha continued: "The director of photography is Lula Carvalho, my editor is Daniel Rezende ('City of God,' 'Elite Squad,' 'The Tree of Life'). I was even consulted for the selection of the producers.”
And what of the rumors that he's having a bunch of difficulties and, essentially, never wants to make another Hollywood movie again? Well, Padilha was terse but seems to be handling shit. “We deal with those difficulties with coolness and familiarity,” he said. Very diplomatic!
We remain optimistic. The "Elite Squad" movies Padilha directed are really, really great, and quite frankly, all the bits that Drew McWeeny at HitFix had a conniption fix over sound like they could be intriguing, given the right touch. Either way, we'll find out soon enough.
"RoboCop" protects and serves starting on August 9th, 2013.
