In June we heard that House actor Hugh Laurie was in talks to join the cast of MGM’s RoboCop reboot. He was apparently up for the villain role as “the evil and ultra-rich CEO of Omnicorp”, which is the company that makes Robocop for its own gain.
Well Variety now reports that Laurie won’t appear in the film after all. The actor was never officially on-board, but it looks like talks broke down along the way (or scheduling issues arose).
A new actor to play the bad guy will likely be sought soon. Gary Oldman is playing the scientist who creates the title character, Samuel L. Jackson is playing a media mogul, and Sucker Punch actress Abbie Cornish is the female lead.
Elite Squad director Jose Padilha is in charge of directing duties, and he’ll make the origin story from a script by Josh Zetumer. Joel Kinnaman stars as the Detroit police officer who undergoes a drastic transformation to become RoboCop after he’s brutally murdered while on duty.
A release date has been set for August 2013, and filming will take place over the upcoming months.
Get Filmonic updates