Gary Oldman has joined the cast of MGM’s remake of RoboCop. Well, that’s one way of getting my attention.

A remake of RoboCop is totally unnecessary as Paul Verhoeven’s original 1987 film still holds up today, and any update would probably be neutered by the studio. Joel Kinnaman takes on the title role, with Jose Padilha directing.

Here’s the lowdown from THR:

“Kinnaman (The Killing) plays the title character, a cop named Alex Murphy who is brought back from the brink of death and turned into a cyborg police officer.

Oldman will play Norton, the scientist who creates Robocop and finds himself torn between the ideals of the machine trying to rediscover its humanity and the callous needs of a corporation.”

Oldman may make this watchable, but I really doubt that Padilha will be able to get away with half of what Verhoeven did 25 years ago. We live in different times, and in a way the world portrayed in RoboCop has come to pass. What does a remake have to offer?

I’m moderately interested now, but not too excited.

Source: THR