Despite a career-best performance in Little Children – helping him break-out in Hollywood – Jackie Earle Haley has used his added cred to unfortunately stay on the blockbuster side of things. With Watchmen, A Nightmare on Elm Street and certainly Dark Shadows, his brief role in Shutter Island was the only one with some serious meat. He’ll get a chance to shine in Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln this fall, but he’s decided to continue on this route of exposure with a reboot of RoboCop, Deadline reports.
The actor has signed on to the role of Maddox, military instructor to our lead character, in Jose Padilha‘s update to Paul Verhoeven‘s 1987 cult classic. As we know Joel Kinnaman is appearing as the titular, heroic fighter; Gary Oldman will play his creator; Samuel L. Jackson was cast as a TV personality; Hugh Laurie as CEO of Omni Corp.; and Abbie Cornish has an undisclosed female lead part. There’s also another lead role waiting to be filled by the ensemble and reports indicate that may go to Cosmopolis star Jay Baruchel. If anyone has seen Padilha’s Elite Squad films, then you know to expect something stronger than usual for this one — especially with this strong cast. Check out the recently released synopsis below.
In RoboCop, the year is 2029 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the centre of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilises their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex’s life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.
RoboCop hits theaters on August 9th, 2013.