If we must have remakes of every 1980s film possible – and this is a belief which Hollywood execs cling to as though it were a life jacket in the midst of a shipping disaster – I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have such retreads at least possessed of half-decent casts.
To which end, the creatively bankrupt souls proposing to lay siege to the glorious, bullet-riddled corpse of Paul Verhoeven‘s peerless “Robocop” appear to be seeking the services of Hugh Laurie as their villain. Pretty inspired casting, if truth be told, as I’m sure that Laurie could bring more than enough low-key, well-spoken menace to the equivalent role that Ronny Cox played in the original, 1987 flick.
If Laurie signs on, he’ll join Gary Oldman, Samuel L Jackson, the in-negotiations Abbie Cornish and Joel Kinnaman as the titular ironsides law man.
The director is Jose Padilha, who previously brought you bleak-as-heck Brazilian cop flick “Elite Squad”, which at least indicates that the producers haven’t sought out a director who’ll toe the line and turn in a PG-13 bowdlerised version of the story.
Would it be too much to hope for that wiser heads on the production team enlist the great Kurtwood Smith for a cameo?
Related articles
- Robocop remake gets a “HOUSE” as a bad guy (geeksyndicate.wordpress.com)
- Gary Oldman Joins ‘RoboCop,’ Playing a Character Unique to the Remake (slashfilm.com)