Landing such an ostentatious and grungy role as Rorschach in the Watchmen film was never going to launch the… less than gorgeous Jackie Earle Haley to superstardom, but it has had the correct effect of making him a reliable character actor able to pop up in bigger and greater things, as well as work with bigger and greater directors. I don’t know if the Robocop reboot is going to be a great project, or if Padilha is meant to be a great studio genre director, but the project will be big!

In any event, Haley will be taking on the Maddox role, who trains up our synthetically rebuilt hero. This puts Haley alongside folks like Hugh Laurie, Abbie Cornish, Gary Oldman, and Samuel L. Jackson, as well as star Joel Kinnaman.

We’ve seen the Transformer-like ED-209,  we know it takes place in 2029 and has a synopsis that sounds like Robocop. Beyond that it’s a toss up whether this turns out to be as lame an idea as it seems. I have a suspicion that Dredd is going to be pretty indicative of what this kind of reboot will look and feel like, which I assume will be the same for any of these 80s/90s action reboots that don’t land a particularly interesting or visionary director. I’m thinking inevitable remakes like The Warriors, Escape From New York, and of course Total Recall, which we’re already seeing fits this new “gritty” mold.

Source | Deadline