RoboCop’s Joel Kinnaman Talks PG-13 Violence (Plus, Sample The Film’s Score)
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The RoboCop remake is only two weeks away. It’s been more than 20 years since a new RoboCop movie has been in theaters, so a whole new generation of fans can discover the character. While it’s unlikely that the remake will be better than the original 1987 film, let’s just hope that the new movie will be better than the sequels. One thing it won’t be able to compete at is the R-rated violence of Paul Verhoeven’s film. The brand-new Officer Murphy, actor Joel Kinnaman, recently discussed the remake’s PG-13 violence during an interview with Collider. Kinnaman spoke about how the tone of the film is darker than you’d expect from a PG-13 action movie, even comparing the remake’s tone to The Dark Knight. Kinnaman said:
“I didn’t really know that The Dark Knight was PG-13 as well, I didn’t know what you could get away with with PG-13…. after seeing what we got away with with PG-13 that battle became quite irrelevant. And the original RoboCop by Verhoeven, he has a very specific idea when it comes to violence and how you portray violence. I mean, he grew up in the whirlpool of WWII and was very affected by that, and he had this idea that when you treat violence way over the top it becomes comedic.
Kinnaman also talked about the general tone of the film, and how RoboCop‘s violence is more about what you don’t see than what you do. If you’re a fan of José Padilha’s films, then you’re most likely going to be a fan of the new RoboCop. Kinnaman continued:
And the violence of the of the original RoboCop was so much aligned with Verhoeven’s cinematic tone and his comedic tone, and our film is carrying Jose’s tone which he’s a completely different filmmaker so the violence that we have in our movie completely makes sense in terms of Jose is.
From early test screening reactions, it seems that the remake gets away with a lot of violence for a PG-13 movie. It also seems that, if a movie can show the violence without the blood and gore, the MPAA will give the movie a pass with a PG-13 rating rather than an R.
Elsewhere in RoboCop land, a few tracks from the film’s score — “Mattox And Reporters” and “First Day” — is now streaming and available to listen to for free. The score is exclusive to The Playlist, but you can still go over to their site and take a listen. Composer Pedro Bromfman wrote the score for the RoboCop remake. He’s a frequent collaborator with director José Padilha, having worked on the scores for Elite Squad and its sequel, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within. Am I wrong, or does the score almost sound like Hans Zimmer’s score for The Dark Knight? Pedro Bromfman is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music and a two-time Cinema Brazil Awards nominee. He also composed the score for the video game Max Payne 3.
Finally, Sony has released a new video called “Man and Machine Part 1.” It features the idea that machines are taking over the world, and that the next step in human evolution is combining man with drone and robotic technology. The remake will examine the process of being a machine, from physical to the emotional transformation. It seems the movie will offer a more realistic approach to robot technology, rather than the fantasy as portrayed in the original movie.
The RoboCop remake is set in the year 2028. OmniCorp, a huge multinational conglomerate, has become the worldwide leader of robotic and drone technology. After he is critically injured after a car-bomb attack, OmniCorp uses honest cop Alex Murphy as a test subject, turning him into the cyborg dubbed RoboCop.
RoboCop stars Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael Kenneth Williams, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Miguel Ferrer, Jennifer Ehle, and Jay Baruchel. The new remake hits theaters everywhere on February 12, in 3D and IMAX. Pre-order the score from Amazon or iTunes.
