Jose Padilha’s new take on Robocop is building quite the impressive cast thus far. Earlier this week, Jackie Earle Haley of ‘Dark Shadows’ and ‘Watchmen’ joined the cast as the trainer of Alex Murphy, the man who eventually becomes Robocop. Haley joins the stacked roster that already includes Hugh Laurie, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Abbie Cornish, and Joel Kinnaman. But another name has been thrown around in all these ‘Robocop’ talks and that’s Judd Apatow regular Jay Baruchel. Not exactly the type of thing we’re used to seeing him in, right?
Last we heard, this surprising casting choice wasn’t official yet as the actor was still in talks for the unknown role. According to The Hollywood Reporter (via Comic Book Movie), the actor is nearing a deal to appear in the movie as “the head of marketing for Omnicorp, the company that is building the police cyborg”. Since Baruchel is known for his comedic roles such as ‘Knocked Up’, ‘Fanboys’, and ‘Tropic Thunder’, I’m assuming that he’d be the comic relief in the cast, but that description doesn’t sound too funny to me. Maybe the actor is looking to broaden his range by taking a role like this. Or the description just leaves out the comic relief part. Either one.
Filming for the ‘Robocop’ reboot starts shortly and is scheduled to be released on August 9, 2013.
