They TOLDJA us! After several days of rumors swirling around that actor Joel Kinnaman was close to signing a deal to become the new Robocop in Brazilian director José Padilha’s reboot of the franchise, Deadline Windsor has now confirmed that the deal is done. This means it should only be a matter of time before he goes in to be fitted for his metallic visor and hidden leg gun.
For those not yet in the know, Padilha is a director known best for his Elite Squad movies, which were action packed looks at Brazilian street crime, as well as the corruption that runs rampant in their politics and police forces. They’re a little heavy handed where the politics are concerned, but that generally gets made up for by how brutal and fun their action sequences are, and it’s probably safe to expect that this new take on Detroit’s number one cop will be in the same vein. He’ll be directing from a script co-written by Gran Torino scribe Nick Schenk and newcomer Joshua Zetumer, so there’s some more indication that this new Robocop will probably be the sort of movie that gives you some socio-political commentary alongside it’s bloodletting.
Kinnaman is a young actor who was born in Sweden, and who seems to just be emerging onto the Hollywood scene. His name and face started to get recognized after he landed a role on the AMC series The Killing, and recently he’s parlayed that success into a couple smaller roles in mainstream films like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Safe House. If Robocop hits like a movie with both name recognition and an unstoppable robotic cop should, then this could be the project that really breaks him as an actor.
And Robocop, well hell, you know who he is.