It was hard to get behind the RoboCop reboot, it was passed around between a few good creative people and eventually landed in the hands of Jose Padilha who is a relatively unknown entity here in the states. However, once the ball started rolling with the cast the project has been gaining momentum.
We already told you about a few nice cast additions last week, which brings the supporting cast up to Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson and Abbie Cornish who join the solid Joel Kinnaman in the film. Already we have a solid cast with some geek cred and plenty of acting chops.
Things get much better though, The Hollywood Reporter has announced who will play one of the key villain roles in the movie:
Hugh Laurie is in negotiations to play the villain in Robocop, MGM and Sony’s remake of the classic 1987 sci-fi action movie… Laurie will play the evil and ultra-rich CEO of Omnicorp, the company that makes Robocop
Dr. House himself! Hugh Laurie is a fantastic actor and will really bring a lot to the table as a swarmy CEO who looks to use RoboCop for his own nefarious reasons. One other aspect of bringing in Laurie to the cast that evokes a lot of excitement is that this news might be another clue that the satirical nature of the original is not going to be left by the wayside.
Most people don’t realize this, but Laurie is an accomplished comedic actor and is more than capable of playing the subtly of a rich, elitist villain who is both threatening and in and of himself a satirical statement. There is also no reason why we shouldn’t expect to hear more quality actors joining this project as it clearly is attracting talent.
This is just pure speculation at this point, but usually when names like Oldman, Jackson and now Laurie join a cast for a paycheck you don’t see a lot of other paycheck names attached. Unless this movie has some crazy casting budget, I have a feeling the script might be something pretty good.
Obviously this is a project that we are covering closely here at The Flickcast, stay tuned for more updates as they develop.
