Clive Owen In Talks To Play The Villain In ‘RoboCop’ After Hugh Laurie Dropped Out?

After Hugh Laurie recently ended negotiations to play the evil and ultra-rich CEO of Omnicorp in ‘RoboCop,’ Deadline report that MGM are  now in talks with a small group of actors to fill the role that Laurie was to play, with Clive Owen the only actor named by the site. Directed by Jose Padhila, ‘RoboCop’ stars Joel Kinnaman (The Killing, Safe House) in the title role, a cop named Alex Murphy who is brought back from the brink of death and turned into a cyborg police officer. Gary Oldman plays Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop and finds himself torn between the ideals of the machine trying to rediscover its humanity and the callous needs of a corporation. Samuel L. Jackson portrays Pat Novak, a charismatic media mogul and a powerful force in the Robocop world. Abbie Cornish stars as Alex Murphy’s wife, and Jackie Earle Haley plays Maddox, the guy who dispenses the military training to RoboCop. Jay Baruchel is said to be circling one of the final leads, while Michael Kenneth Williams and Marianne Jean-Baptiste recently joined to play close Police colleagues to Joel Kinnaman’s Alex Murphy.

The 1987 Paul Verhoeven original was about a cop (Peter Weller) who was near death and was drafted to become a powerful cyborg cop, until suppressed memories of his past life come back to haunt him. The ‘RoboCop’ remake once had Darren Aronofsky developing it to direct before MGM halted progress on all of its pictures while they were going through financial difficulties. Sony Pictures will distribute the movie for MGM. Strike Entertainment’s Eric Newman and Marc Abraham are producing with a script from Josh Zetumer. ‘RoboCop’ arrives in cinemas August 9th, 2013. Jose Padilha’s crime thrillers ‘Elite Squad’ and ‘Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within’ have been tremendously successful in the directors home country of Brazil. ‘Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within’ was Brazil’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the recent Academy Awards, and has to-date earned over $63 million domestically. Check out the synopsis for ‘RoboCop’ below.

In RoboCop, the year is 2029 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center 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 utilizes 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.

Director José Padilha (Elite Squad) reimagines the tale of part man, part machine, all cop starring Joel Kinnaman (The Killing) as the title character, Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises) as the scientist who creates RoboCop, and Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers) as media mogul Pat Novak. RoboCop is being produced by Strike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman, with Eric Carraro as Executive Producer. The film is currently in pre-production and slated for a summer 2013 release.