Like it or not, we are firmly entrenched in the era of reboots, prequels, and reimaginings. Sometimes going back through a characters past and retooling things a bit works out great like it did with Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy or ‘Star Trek’, while other times… not so much (see ‘Superman Returns’).
One of the bigger reboots that I’ve been excited about is MGM’s reworking of the 1987 classic ‘Robocop’. So far, things look good. Jose Padilha (‘Elite Squad’) is directing, Nick Schenk (‘Gran Torino’) is scripting and, so far, the cast list, while meager, looks great. Joel Kinnaman (‘The Killing’) in the title role.
And now the spectacular Gary Oldman (Jim Gordon in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’) has joined the cast. Maybe MGM is hoping that Oldman brings some of that ‘Dark Knight’ magic to this reboot. According to Collider, Oldman will be playing a character named Norton. Norton is the scientist that creates Robocop and “finds himself torn between the ideals of the machine trying to rediscover its humanity and the callous needs of a corporation.” With the way he immerses himself into his roles, Oldman is one of my favorite actors of all time and I can’t wait to see what he brings to the moral dilemma of Norton.
According to Padilha, the new ‘Robocop’ story is set mainly in the time between Murphy being shot down and his appearance as Robocop so it’s more of a focus on the creation of the character than his adventures as the cop. Hopefully this means that, if it’s good enough, there will be a new round of ‘Robocop’ movies on the way.
‘Robocop’ is set to release on August 9, 2013.
