Michael Keaton will give RoboCop trouble.
We recently heard the sad news that Hugh Laurie will not be playing the villain in “RoboCop” as had long been expected. Now we have a replacement, though–Deadline says Michael Keaton will take the role of Raymond Sellars, the CEO of the corporation that builds RoboCop. Joel Kinnaman is playing RoboCop/Alex Murphy with Jose Padilha is directing.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Keaton in a solid role in a big time movie. He’s mostly been doing voice work; his last big screen appearance was in “The Other Guys.” He also did an episode of “30 Rock.” I can see him as a villainous business guy–this should be good for him (may I say that I thought he was fine in the “Batman” movie he was in? Nolan’s Gotham, no, probably not, but Burton’s universe? Absolutely).
Padilha had this to say about the casting:
“Michael is the final addition to the amazing cast we have assembled for this film and it is so great to have the last puzzle piece in place. It is thrilling that everything has come together to bring this innovative new vision of RoboCop to life. We’ve got a great script, a great cast, some killer ED-209’s and I can’t wait to get Alex Murphy back on the streets.”
The rest of the cast includes Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Jackie Earle Haley, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Kenneth Williams and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
“RoboCop” is set to be released on August 9, 2013.
