A remake/reboot of the cult classic Robocop has been a recurring topic on the Hollywood rumor mill since 2008, when Darren Aronofsky (of all people) was said to be in talks with MGM to helm. Talk of Aronofsky's involvement with the wannabe reboot persisted until the summer of 2010, when—with his soon-to-be heralded Black Swan about to hit—Aronofsky left the project for good. From there it seemed a RoboReboot was dead.

However, last spring Elite Squad 2 director Jose Padilha was tapped to bring RoboCop back to theaters, perhaps thanks to the franchise's long-devoted fans who birthed a campaign to have the ultra-violent action hero immortalized with a statue in Detroit, his filmic stomping grounds. Since then, the rumor mill's been grinding away with a wide array of possible leading men, from A-listers like Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp, to rising action stars Chris Pine and Michael Fassbender. Basically it seems any devastatingly handsome white guy will do. However, no talent has yet signed on.

In fact, the project had seemed to stall once more when word came out that MGM would not be using the RoboReboot script Darren Aronofsky had crafted. Instead, Padilha revealed that he and Josh Zetumer, whose first script Infiltrator snagged a coveted spot on the Black List, were developing the screenplay together. However, THR now reports that Gran Torino screenwriter Nick Schenk has been brought on board to develop the screenplay, and Zetumer's name is entirely absent from the announcement. Does this mean Schenk is merely giving the script a polish? Or is this a total tear-down? It's hard to determine at this juncture, thought either way Schenk seems a smart choice for the material-- after all, Gran Torinowas heralded for its unflinching and gritty, baroque exploration of vigilante justice. Come to think of it, Clint Eastwood's character there seems well suited to a cyborg upgrade…Someone get Eastwood on the phone!