In the original Short Circuit, Johnny-5 was a robot programmed to put an end to the Cold War. A lighting strike caused the robot to become sentient, and Johnny-5 aborted his killer programming and evolved into a robot with a heart of gold. This non-threatening and cute robot paved the way for similarly-themed movies like The Iron Giant and Wall-E.
So it’s no surprise that the beloved ’80s movie is getting rebooted, although this particular reboot may not be as light and endearing as its predecessor. In fact, director Tim Hill is hoping to make the film slightly darker and edgier while maintaining its family-friendly context.
It’s a tall order for a remake that no one really asked for, but Hill truly believes that a new Short Circuit is just the thing that movie audiences will love. In an interview with 24 Frames, Hill shed some light about the new Short Circuit:
“The thing that makes it so relevant is that we live in this age of robots, particularly when it comes to war. We have drones that do our fighting for us, do all these jobs men and women don’t want to do. And that’s what makes this so interesting — things like this moment in the story when Johnny realizes he’s going to be disassembled and contemplates death, and whether it’s right to terminate someone else.”
While not completely different from its predecessor, Hill wants to have the themes of war play an important part in his Short Circuit. In addition to these changes, the film’s human protagonist will be a teenager this time around as opposed to the early twenty-year-old seen in the original. This will allow younger audiences to relate to the character and maintain its family friendly feel – An interesting approach considering Hill wants to address the issues war.
“If you look at kids and how they adopt machinery, it’s just getting tight and tighter. We’re just becoming more connected to our machines. That’s why I think this can say more about our relationship with technology than the original ever did.”
It should be interesting to see just how Hill is able to balance the issues of war and still make it family-friendly for modern audiences. For an interesting look at how society may utilize tech in their daily lives in the near future, check out Google’s augmented reality glasses at our sister site, Game Rant.
Tim Hill and a team of writers are currently working on the script for the Short Circuit reboot which is expected to hit theaters sometime in 2013.
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