A sincere promise: My next news item will be about an original film with no ties to any other film, cartoon, comic book or erotic fan fiction that’s come before. I swear, for your sanity and mine. Until then, let’s all just hunker down and get through this.
MTV had the opportunity to chat with future Robocop (works on a few levels) Joel Kinnaman, who had a lot to say about the upcoming José Padilha-directed reboot. He talks specifically about his approach as an actor. So step aside Peter Weller, Joel Kinnaman’s got this:
“The actor then explained the reboot’s relationship to beloved original directed by Paul Verhoeven. ” ‘RoboCop’ is going to be a lot more human,” Kinnaman said. “The first movie is one of my favorite movies. I love it. Of course, Verhoeven has that very special tone, and it’s not going to have that tone. It’s a re-imagination of it. There’s a lot of stuff from the original. There are some details and throwbacks, but this version is a much better acting piece, for Alex Murphy and especially when he is RoboCop. It’s much more challenging.”
Kinnaman went on to say that because the character will have more human characteristics, we’ll see more of his actual face. “It’s not going to be jaw action. They’re still working on the suit and how it’s going to look, but the visor is going to be see-through,” he said. “You’re going to see his eyes.”
I’m done getting worked up about projects like this, but anyone who knows anything about the original Robocop knows what a challenge it was for Peter Weller to act in that suit. Before they got the process down to a science it took Weller 9-10 hours just to slide into the 90 lb. suit. Trying to mime robotic movements can be a challenge when you’re battling heat and exhaustion (the film was shot in Dallas, Texas). And Weller still delivered one of the most iconic performances in science fiction. So when Kinnaman talks about this reboot being a “better acting piece” before the first frame’s even been shot, it comes off as actor wank. He does go on to provide this ditty about the suit:
“It’s not going to be jaw action. They’re still working on the suit and how it’s going to look, but the visor is going to be see-through,” he said. “You’re going to see his eyes.”
That’s the sort of tidbit that will cause fanboys to get bent out of shape, but the character’s visor transparency has no bearing on the final product. So hopefully I won’t be running a story three months from now about how Padilha caved on account of angry fan sentiment. We already have one perfect Robocop movie. Anything else is that nourishing robo-gravy that Johnson said “tastes like babyfood.”