Having been eyed by Steven Soderbergh for the now defunct "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." (a casting desire that somewhat caused the project's abortion at Warner Bros) and for David Dobkin's "Arthur & Lancelot" before WB again killed development, Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman is finally about to get his time in the blockbuster spotlight. Deadline says the "Snabba Cash" star has agreed to wear the metal helmet of RoboCop in MGM's long-gestating revival (which now appears to be a reboot rather than years later sequel) of the sci-fi/action franchise. He will play Officer Alex Murphy, a police officer who is gunned down and almost killed in the line of duty, before being re-built as a crime-fighting cyborg. He is stepping into the shoes of the great Peter Weller who originated the character in the first two movies, and then the lesser seen portrayals by Robert John Burke ("RoboCop 3"), Richard Eden (a totally forgotten Canadian tv series), David Soblov (the animated show "RoboCop: Alpha Commando") and Page Fletcher (mini-series "RoboCop: Prime Directives"). Kinnaman was first offered the role a week ago and he signed the contract over the weekend for a movie that could very well change his life and bring him Hollywood stardom. Elite Squad director Jose Padilha will shoot the movie this summer from a script by Josh Zetumer but recently re-written by Gran Torino scribe Nick Schenk. Padilha revealed his take on the movie to Coming Soon last year;
"I have my take on it.. And I can tell you this: In the first 'RoboCop' when Alex Murphy is shot, gunned down, then you see some hospitals and stuff and then you cut to him as RoboCop. My movie is between those two cuts. How do you make RoboCop? How do you slowly bring a guy to be a robot? How do you actually take humanity out of someone and how do you program a brain, so to speak, and how does that affect an individual?"