José Padilha Knows His ROBOCOP Cast?

Is the Elite Squad director waiting on Chris Pine or Michael Fassbender's schedules to clear to play the powerful cyborg cop or if not them, who?

By Matt Holmes / September 26, 2011

ran the story of Elite Squad director José Padilha calling out Michael Fassbender on Brazilian TV as an actor he 'likes' for his February shooting RoboCop reboot but according to a new interview with The Playlist it sounds like his name was dropped as part of a wider bunch of actors, one of which he also named to be Chris Pine. So basically we shouldn't be looking too much into the names he has mentioned as it sounds like he is a long way from nailing down his number one choice, though presumably Fassbender & Pine will have preliminary meetings with the director over the franchise. Padhila explains what happened this week after being asked over and over again who was going to be RoboCop;

I said I dont know, and after the guy asked the same question like ten times, I said, theres so many great new actors in American films, like Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, and so on. And all of a sudden Ive called Fassbender out, but we havent even discussed this film. But its true hes a great actor. But theyre all great actors. So its from one sentence in one interview with a Dutch guy,

Chris Pine has of course found himself rumoured for the powerful cyborg cop before but this was back in the day when he was linked with every franchise going. Trying to nail down Pine for this kind of thing would still thrust MGM into the same problems as in securing Fassbender. Pine already has a regular franchise on the go and infact with Paramount having forced through the sequel contract clause, filming for Star Trek 2 will definitely be taking place from January to summer, so there's no chance Pine would be able to do this film. There's one name you can definitely scratch off your list. Although having said that Padilha then says as he prepares for his shoot just four months away;

I wish I could be doing this planning... Theres a lot of scheduling with actors and stuff like that, and its difficult. All of the schedules of all of the different people who are very busy, so its not easy. But I think I will know in ten days.

Very, very interesting. PERHAPS... Padilha does want Chris Pine and is trying to get MGM to wait until Star Trek 2 is done and aim for a summer shoot instead (which is why he is having to wait 10 days to see if they go for it)... but that's probably me just playing devil's advocate. Clearly from the sounds of that though Padilha does know exactly who he wants to lead and perhaps his supporting cast too but he is just waiting on to see if the stars can align? If he is waiting on actor's schedules, then he must know the majority of who he wants?

Interestingly, Padilha spoke a little of his approach to the RoboCop reboot and how he got his greenlight but does warn us that the real hook of his new take he won't reveal quite yet;

I had a take on it, which I cant tell you what it is because it would ruin the surprise of the film, but I presented this take to MGM and to Roger and John and Adam, and theyre great guys... And they loved it, so they said, lets make a film about it, so Im like recreating the story based on that concept, that brilliant concept of changing a man with technology, automated systems, which is sort of a metaphor for whats going on in society anyways. I never approached [RoboCop] by looking at the first one, and asking myself what do I keep and what do I take away... I just looked at the concept of RoboCop, and the concept of RoboCop is very, very interesting. RoboCop is not a superhero he is not a superhero. He is a man thats turned into something else, by technology, and by a certain political perspective thats being criticized in Verhoevens film, and by the media, too. So that idea, of a man thats turned into something else for some purpose, appeals to me on its own regardless of the first film. I think the media needs a little criticizing now, as it did in the 80s, dont you? Just look at what happened in the Bush era with the lack of criticism weve seen from most of it at the beginning of the Iraq invasion, and the sort of patriotic approach of the media that you couldnt say anything against it. Its high time we got a little acid criticism of that in my film in RoboCop."