‘The Killing’s Joel Kinnaman Gets ‘Robocop’ Offer
EXCLUSIVE: I’m told that MGM is making an offer to Joel Kinnaman to play the title role in its Robocop remake. The film’s being directed by Jose Padilha, helmer of two action packed installments of Elite Squad. Strike Entertainment partners Eric Newman and Marc Abraham are producing. Josh Zetumer wrote the script.

Kinnaman, who’d take the role originated by Peter Weller in the 1987 Paul Verhoeven original, most recently turned in a memorable performance in Safe House opposite Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. He burst on the scene in the AMC series The Killing. Before that he starred in Snabba Cash, which was directed by Safe House helmer Daniel Espinosa. Kinnaman, who’s repped by UTA and Magnolia Entertainment’s Shelley Browning, becomes the second high profile casting move made by MGM this week. The studio is in early talks with Dwayne Johnson to play Hercules.

Update: Joel Kinnaman Confirmed as RoboCop Lead

Jose Padilha's reboot of RoboCop looks to have found its lead as Deadline reports that Joel Kinnaman ("The Killing," Snabba Cash) has been offered the role of Officer Alex Murphy (played in the original by Peter Weller).

UPDATE: Deadline is confirming their earlier report, saying that Kinnaman has accepted the deal and has closed his deal to play Alex Murphy in the Robocop remake for MGM.

A reboot of the 1987 Paul Verhoeven film, RoboCop will again tell the story of a police officer who, after nearly being killed in the line of duty, is rebuilt as a crime-fighting cyborg. The original film spawned two sequels and multiple television series spinoffs.

"I have my take on it," Padilha told ComingSoon.net late last year, "And I can tell you this: In the first 'RoboCop' when Alex Murphy is shot, gunned down, then you see some hospitals and stuff and then you cut to him as RoboCop. My movie is between those two cuts. How do you make RoboCop? How do you slowly bring a guy to be a robot? How do you actually take humanity out of someone and how do you program a brain, so to speak, and how does that affect an individual?"

Recently, Gran Torino scribe Nick Schenk was brought about the project to rewrite. Production is still targeted for this summer.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=87439

Joel Kinnaman Promises "More Human" Look for RoboCop

Attached to the project earlier this month, Snabba Cash star Joel Kinnaman spoke today with MTV and dropped a few details about his upcoming role as Officer Alex Murphy in Jose Padilha's reboot of RoboCop.

"There's a lot of neuroscience now raising the question, 'Is all the intelligence in the human body in the brain?'" Kinnaman explains, "and they’re finding out that, no, it’s not like that. The body has intelligence itself, and we’re much more of an organic creature in that way. It's not a control tower that does everything."

In addition to a more scientific approach, Kinnaman says that the humanity of Murphy will be played up in ways that include a redesign of the RoboCop costume.

"They’re still working on the suit and how it’s going to look, but the visor is going to be see-through," he continues. "You’re going to see his eyes... It's not going to be jaw action."

"I have my take on it," Padilha himself told ComingSoon.net late last year, "And I can tell you this: In the first 'RoboCop' when Alex Murphy is shot, gunned down, then you see some hospitals and stuff and then you cut to him as RoboCop. My movie is between those two cuts. How do you make RoboCop? How do you slowly bring a guy to be a robot? How do you actually take humanity out of someone and how do you program a brain, so to speak, and how does that affect an individual?"

Kinnaman also teased that the story, from screenwriter Josh Zetumer and Nick Schenk, will play as a political satire.

RoboCop is set for release on August 9, 2013.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=88436

Today news came out that Oldman will play a major role opposite Joel Kinnaman, who was cast a few weeks back as the new version of Alex Murphy, a cop who is killed (nearly killed?) but revived as a cyborg police officer.

I bet many will do the same thing I did and assume that Oldman will be playing either the role held by Ronny Cox in the original, or even one of the roles played to such memorable effect by Kurtwood Smith or Miguel Ferrer. In fact, Oldman’s casting reveals some new information about the remake, as he’s playing a new character named Norton, aka the guy who creates RoboCop.

THR says that Norton is “the scientist who creates Robocop and finds himself torn between the ideals of the machine trying to rediscover its humanity and the callous needs of a corporation.”