Hugh Laurie (House) is in negotiations to play the villain in RoboCop, MGM’s remake of Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi classic, which will be distributed by Sony Pictures.

Jose Padilha (Elite Squad) is directing the origin story from a script by Josh Zetumer. Joel Kinnaman (The Killing) is set to star as the titular character, a decorated Detroit police officer called Alex Murphy who undergoes a drastic transformation to become RoboCop after he’s brutally murdered while on duty.

Laurie is in talks to join the remake as the villainous CEO of Omni Corp, which creates the cyborg law-enforcer for its own gain. This follows a number of other recent casting announcements, with Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) signing up to play the scientist who creates RoboCop, Abbie Cornish (Limitless) being chosen to play his conflicted wife, and Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers) taking the part of a patriotic media mogul.

RoboCop is set to start shooting this summer, with a UK release date currently slated for August 9th 2013. Hugh Laurie can next be seen on the big screen in the lead role of novel adaptation Mister Pip, a war drama directed by Andrew Adamson (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe).