TV
MGM Developing ‘RoboCop’ Prequel Series Focusing on Villainous Omni VP Dick Jones
Before being shot several times and falling to his death out of a boardroom window, Dick Jones (portrayed by Ronny Cox) was the slimy, villainous, and extremely corrupt Senior Vice President of Omni Consumer Products.
While his death in RoboCop (1987) will be remembered as one of the all-time greats, his life could be celebrated in a brand new RoboCop prequel series that would also focus on the rise of Omni Consumer Products.
Digressing, after losing Neill Blomkamp to another horror endeavor, MGM and Orion recently hired Abe Forsythe to get behind the camera for RoboCop Returns, an official sequel that had been planned by the original 1987 film’s screenwriters Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner, but was canceled when director Paul Verhoeven declined to direct the project and a WGA strike in 1988 followed [TheWrap].
Neumeier, who will also produce, revealed that he’s also currently working with MGM on the new RoboCop prequel series that would focus on the life of Dick Jones.
“I’m working at MGM on it,” he tells Moviehole while also noting:
“It has all the cool stuff about RoboCop except no RoboCop.”
“I’m working with these two writers, Dave Parkin and Rob Gibbs, who bought this idea to a TV producer friend of mine, who then brought it to me. The first time I heard it I knew it was a cool idea because I could see a lot of things you could do with it. It’s such an interesting character.”
Speaking in regards to the original film’s social commentary: “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, 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,” he continues. “It’s fun to work with a younger version of the Dick Jones we meet in RoboCop. He’s an actualized corporate predator [in the movie] but nobody necessarily starts out being the bad guy,” he notes.
“So it’s going to be about the evolution of Richard Jones to Dick Jones, the story of OCP and how the world moves into the future, how the corporate world behaves.”
There’s no formal go-ahead, but Neumeier hopes MGM can find the right partners to give the pilot a try.
As the site notes, think “Gotham” but set in Delta City, which begs the question, would you watch a RoboCop series without RoboCop?
Not even death can slow Chucky in “There Will Be Blood,” the penultimate episode of “Chucky” Season 3. With the killer receiving a mortal blow in the last episode, Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) can now take full advantage of the White House’s bizarre supernatural purgatory, leaving him free to continue his current reign of terror as a ghost. While that spells trouble for Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur), Devon (Bjorgvin Arnarson), and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind), it makes for an outrageously satisfying bloodbath heading into next week’s finale.
“There Will Be Blood” covers a lot of ground in short order, with Charles Lee Ray confronting his maker over his failures before he can continue his current path of destruction. Lexy, Jake, and Devon continue their desperate bid to find Lexy’s sister, which means seeking answers from the afterlife. They’re in luck, considering Warren Pryce (Gil Bellows) enlists the help of parapsychologists to solve the White House’s pesky paranormal problem. Of course, Warren also has unfinished business with the surviving First Family members, including the President’s assigned body double, Randall Jenkins (Devon Sawa). Then there’s Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly), who’s feeling the immense weight of her looming execution.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Brad Dourif as Charles Lee Ray, Chucky — (Photo by: SYFY)
Arguably, the most impressive aspect of “Chucky” is how series creator Don Mancini and his fantastic team of writers consistently swing for the fences. That constant “anything goes” spirit pervades the entire season, but especially this episode. Lexy’s new beau, Grant (Jackson Kelly), exemplifies this; he’s refreshingly quick to accept even the most outlandish concepts – namely, the White House as a paranormal hub and that his little brother’s doll happens to be inhabited by a serial killer.
But it’s also in the way that “There Will Be Blood” goes for broke in ensuring it’s the bloodiest episode of the series to date. Considering how over-the-top and grisly Chucky’s kills can be, that’s saying a lot. Mancini and crew pay tribute to The Shining in inspired ways, and that only hints at a fraction of the bloodletting in this week’s new episode.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: Brad Dourif as Charles Lee Ray — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Chucky” can get away with splattering an insane amount of blood on the small screen because it’s counterbalanced with a wry sense of humor and campy narrative turns that are just as endearing and fun as the SFX. Moreover, it’s the fantastic cast that sells it all. In an episode where Brad Dourif makes a rare appearance on screen, cutting loose and having a blast in Chucky’s incorporeal form, his mischievous turn is matched by Tiffany facing her own mortality and Nica Pierce’s (Fiona Dourif) emotionally charged confrontation with her former captor.
There’s also Devon Sawa, who amusingly continues to land in Chucky’s crosshairs no matter the character. Season 3 began with Sawa as the deeply haunted but kind President Collins, and Sawa upstages himself as the unflappably upbeat and eager-to-please doppelganger Randall Jenkins. That this episode gives Sawa plenty to do on the horror front while playing his most likable character yet on the series makes for one of the episode’s bigger surprises.
The penultimate episode of “Chucky” Season 3 unleashes an epic bloodbath. It delivers scares, gore, and franchise fan service in spades, anchored by an appropriate scene-chewing turn by Dourif. That alone makes this episode a series highlight. But the episode also neatly ties together its characters and plot threads to pave the way for the finale. No matter how this season wraps up, it’s been an absolute pleasure watching Chucky destroy the White House from the inside.
“Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on USA & SYFY.
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