José Padilha Laments ‘RoboCop’ Remake, Says ‘I Didn’t Have The Creative Freedom I Needed’
Brazilian director and producer José Padilha keeps himself busy nowadays with many film and TV projects after his big Hollywood break with a modern remake of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 film “RoboCop.” Released in 2014, the film was a commercial success but garnered mostly mixed to negative reviews. Now in an interview with ScreenDaily, Padilha admits that making “RoboCop” was a “stressful experience.” “I didn’t have the creative freedom I needed,” says Padilha. “I spent 90% of the time fighting. It made me realize that making a studio movie is not the same as making a film.” Padilha also says that he would “think a million times before getting involved in another production of that size again,” and that he’d “rather face the reality than make movies about superheroes.”
Padilha previously directed the crime drama “Elite Squad” and its sequel “Elite Squad: The Enemy Within,” both of which shined a light on police brutality in Brazil. The films’ success put Padilha’s life in danger when he was the target of an armed break-in, which the cops in Rio suspect was a reaction to the film.
He is currently the executive producer of the Netflix series “Narcos” and is set to direct “Jet Wash,” a six-episode series for Netflix about Operation Car Wash, an investigation by the Federal Police of Brazil into Petrobras, the country’s state-run oil company. Plus, he will also direct a Showtime series about prison gangs in the ’60s and ’70s as well as a film called “Entebbe,” which dramatizes the events 1976 hijack of an Air France airliner.
READ MORE: 10 Reasons Why The Original ‘RoboCop’ Can’t Be Beaten By The Remake
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