MGM developing RoboCop prequel series

A RoboCop prequel TV series is in development at MGM, but this time, the spotlight is focused on the rise of Omni Consumer Products and its corrupt senior vice president, Dick Jones.

In an interview with entertainment website moviehole.net, Ed Neumeier, scriptwriter of the original Robocop film in 1987, revealed that he is working at MGM for a prequel series.

“It has all the cool stuff about RoboCop except no RoboCop,” he said. The story will revolve around “the evolution of Richard Jones to Dick Jones, the story of OCP, how the world moves into the future and how the corporate behaves.”

“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,” he added. “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,” he explained.

In the interview, Neumeier suggests that the show does not have an official green light yet, and MGM needs to find partners to produce a pilot episode. “With any luck, if MGM is willing, if we can find the partners, if we can get this pilot made, if we can convince a bunch of people and if it all works out, maybe we’ll get a TV show up.”

He also notes that people don’t necessarily start out as bad guys and even villains may not be quite as corrupt early on.

At the end of the 1987 movie, Jones, played by Ronny Cox, was blown away by RoboCop and shot out of a boardroom window. If the prequel series comes to fruition, maybe we all can have better judgment if Jones did deserve such an end.