It seems that Elite Squad and Elite Squad: The Enemy Within director José Padilha may have found his leading man for the upcoming RoboCop remake, and no – it’s not Russell Crowe or Michael Fassbender. According to a report from Deadline, the role of Alex Murphy – originally filled by Peter Weller in Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 cult classic – has been offered to Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman, who is currently starring in as Stephen Holder in AMC’s acclaimed television drama The Killing.
Kinnaman’s other credits include roles in Snabba Cash, Easy Money, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Safe House, while he has recently completed filming on the comedy Lola Versus and sequel Snabba Cash II and is also set to star as Lancelot in the upcoming Camelot adventure fantasy Arthur & Lancelot from writer-director David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers, The Change-Up).
Back in December, we spoke to Padilha about what drew him to the project, which has been penned by Josh Zetumer, who was responsible for uncredited rewrites on Quantum of Solace: “I like several things about RoboCop. The idea of having a man having actual body parts replaced by a computerised existence and the idea of a corporation taking control of this man and turning him into a product… I bet you that in 30 years from now wars will only be fought by drones and law enforcement will be populated by drones and automatic systems. That creates a host of ethical issues, a lot of questions that have not been answered. Another interesting thing about RoboCop is that it allows you to talk about the philosophic mind/body problem, which is can a computer system be conscious? What does it mean to be conscious? Can you consider a robotic entity ethically guilty of a crime, or is the corporation that made the robot guilty? All those issues are the core of the RoboCop concept.”
Originally published February 24, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.
