MTV recently had a chance to speak with RoboCop star Joel Kinnaman, and the actor spoke a lot about the differences between his upcoming film and Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 version. He called director Jose Padhila “a badass” and “the real deal,” and even addressed his character’s iconic visor.
This film will be a lot more realistic than the ’87 original, and Kinnaman has said before that this movie will better explore the time between when Alex Murphy is shot and when he becomes RoboCop.
“There’s a lot of neuroscience now raising the question, ‘Is all the intelligence in the human body in the brain?’ and they’re finding out that, no, it’s not like that,” Kinnaman said. “The body has intelligence itself, and we’re much more of an organic creature in that way. It’s not a control tower that does everything.”
He also said his take on the character will be a lot more expressive than previous attempts, thanks in part to the costume design:
” ‘RoboCop’ is going to be a lot more human,” Kinnaman said. “The first movie is one of my favorite movies. I love it. Of course, Verhoeven has that very special tone, and it’s not going to have that tone. It’s a re-imagination of it. There’s a lot of stuff from the original. There are some details and throwbacks, but this version is a much better acting piece, for Alex Murphy and especially when he is RoboCop. It’s much more challenging…It’s not going to be jaw action. They’re still working on the suit and how it’s going to look, but the visor is going to be see-through,” he said. “You’re going to see his eyes.”
I haven’t seen enough of Kinnaman’s work to offer a legitimate opinion about whether he’s right for the part, but I’m stoked about this project because I don’t think the original film holds up very well and it seems like the perfect movie to update with today’s technology. Padhila also really impressed me with Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, so I’m looking forward to see his kinetic visual style applied to this character. What do you think?
