The Killing's Joel Kinnaman Rumored To Be The Next RoboCop

With Hollywood remaking so many movies now, almost none of the classics are safe, and 1987's RoboCop is no exception. The reboot has had many rumored faces attached to it's leading role, including Chris Pine (Star Trek), Russell Crowe (Gladiator), and Michael Fassbender (X-Men First Class). Now, Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman's name can be added to the long list of contenders for our future RoboCop.

Deadline reports that MGM has just made an offer to Kinnaman to star in their upcoming film. Kinnaman  is probably best known for playing detective Stephen Holder on AMC's The Killing. He's also had roles in last December's alien thriller Darkest Hour, the Oscar nominated The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and most recently in the Denzel Washington action film Safe House. Kinnaman was even on Kenneth Branagh's shortlist to star as Thor, and is attached to the upcoming film Arthur and Lancelot as Lancelot himself. So as you can see, Kinnaman is becoming a pretty popular guy in Hollywood.

To be honest, Kinnaman isn't the first to come to mind when thinking of someone to replace Peter Weller as RoboCop. But then again, maybe a different type of RoboCop is just what this film needs, and just what MGM is going for judging by the previous actors they've considered. I haven't seen enough of Kinnaman's work to say he'd be a great Alex Murphy/RoboCop, but as long as he's on par with Weller's performance, he should be fine. My personal choices for RoboCop would probably be Aaron Eckhart or Patrick Wilson, but that's for more of a Weller imitation than a fresh take.

The Brazilian director José Padilha is helming the film, who is best known for his work on the Elite Squad film series (Which first film is still the highest grossing film of all time in Brazil). The Elite Squad films are a bit similar to RoboCop, also being police action dramas. The films is also being scripted by Gran Torino writer Nick Schenk, so it seems to be in good hands. Padilha has discussed his approach on the RoboCop story before, and here is what he had to say on it:

“Wars in the future are going to be fought with drones. We won’t send a plane with a pilot in, it will be drone. It’s getting that way now and ten years from now that’s how wars are going to be fought. But what if a drone goes wrong – who is to blame then? Do you blame the drone? And that problem asks if you can you consider a robot guilty of a crime. Or is it the corporation that made the robot that is guilty? How do you fight back against drones when you don’t have drones?”

The RoboCop reboot will be joining a number of remakes which take place in the future, such as this years Total Recall with Colin Farrell, and Judge Dredd starring Karl Urban. The RoboCop film still has a long way to go, and there's still no telling whether original villains Dick Jones and Clarence Boddicker will return, or a whole new story will be taken on. None the less, there's no doubt some changes have to be made for RoboCop to still feel futuristic, and I would love to see these awesome suit designs:

What do you think of Joel Kinnaman as Robocop? Are you excited for a reboot?

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William Fichtner Replacing Dwight Yoakam As The Lone Ranger Villain

There was a time just a few months ago where it seemed that Gore Verbenski's The Longer Ranger film (Which has been in development hell since way back in 2002) was going to suffer another set back and be delayed, due to an over expensive budget of $250 million dollars. But now it seems that the film is back on track (With a much more reasonable budget I assume), and it's next big move has been replacing country singer Dwight Yoakam for William Fichtner as the title villain.

Fichtner will be replacing Yoakam as the popular Lone Ranger villain Butch Cavendish, a leader of a band of outlaws. In the original tale Cavendish and his crew leave John Reid (Armie Hammer) for dead, that is until he is rescued by the Native American Tonto (Johnny Depp). Tonto trains Reid to become the Lone Ranger, and eventually joins him as his sidekick as they seek revenge on Cavendish. So as you can see, Cavedish plays a pretty important role in the origins of the Lone Ranger.

According to Deadline, principal photography was just about to start up on the film, when Yoakam had to drop out due to scheduling issues. Fichtner will be joining a so far very impressive cast, including leading men Armie Hammer (Social Network) and Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean), Helena Bonham Carter (Alice in Wonderland), Barry Pepper (True Grit), Ruth Wilson (Luther), Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins), and James Badge Dale (The Grey).

You might not recognize Fichtner at first, but he's probably been in a lot of your favorite films and you haven't even noticed (He's more of a background guy, but still leaves an impression). His credits include The Dark Knight, Heat, Contact, Black Hawk Down, The Perfect Storm, Crash, Date Night, Armageddon, and most notably as The Accountant in Drive Angry 3D. And he's also had television roles in Prison Break, and Entourage, so basically the guy is the perfect villain for any movie.

Whether you have doubts about the movie because of Verbenski's directing, or Depp as Tonto, there's no denying that the film is rounding up a very impressive cast, who also seem to fit well in a Western genre film (With the exception of Carter, who seems to be a bit out of place here). With all the problems the film has gone through, it'll be very interesting to see how it turns out. Look for The Lone Ranger in theaters May 31, 2013.

What do you think of Fichtner as Cavendish? Are you excited about The Lone Ranger?

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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson May Be Brett Ratner's Hercules

Recently between the release of Tarsem Singh's Immortals, and the upcoming sequel Wrath of the Titans, movie about humans in Greek mythology seems to be more popular than movies about the gods themselves. And now comes another one from X-Men: The Last Stand director Brett Ratner, based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Tharcian Wars, and The Rock himself is being eyed for the starring role.

According to Vareity's Jeff Snyder's Twitter page:

"VARIETY EXCLUSIVE: Can you smell what HERCULES is cooking? TheRock is in talks to star in MGM & Brett Ratner’s HERCULES!!!"

While the story of Hercules is probably mostly known for it's Disney animation portrayal, the graphic novel that the film will be based off of has a completely different approach. Rather than being from Greece, Hercules is actually in the barbarian nation Thrace, where he has to take the Thracian's kings orders and train the Tharcian army for war. Now, while the Rock might not have seemed the best choice for a classic Greek Hercules, he fits this more barbaric version much better. My personal choice for Hercules would be Joe Manganeillo, but while he fits the Greek Hercules perfectly, a think he could also tackle the barbaric version as well.

The Rock has been in the spotlight quite a bit lately, whether for good or bad. He's done a very wide array of movies recently including last years action blockbuster Fast Five, this years kids film Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and later this year he'll be starring in G.I. Joe Retaliation, which falls somewhere in between the latter and former. If the Rock choses to except the role, it'll really tackle a much more similar role to The Rock's first films including Scorpion King and The Mummy Returns. The Rock may not be award winningly amazing on screen, but he's definitely got a lot of charisma to pull off a leading role like Hercules.

As for the films director Brett Ratner, there's much more room for concern with him. Ratner's work on the not so well recieved X-Men: The Last Stand is enough to have me worried, and then there's this year's highly hyped (But not so successful) Tower Heist, and not to mention his nack for getting in trouble (So much so, that he ruined Eddie Murphy's chance at hosting this years Oscars). While Ratner has definitely had some mishaps, that isn't to say that he can't pull of a decent entertaining action flick. I guess we'll all have to see how this adaption turns out come 2014.

What do you think of the Rock as Hercules? Do you think Brett Ratner can pull it off?

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