Jackie Earle Haley has joined the growing cast of RoboCop for MGM and director José Padilha. Jay Baruchel is also reportedly circling one of the final lead roles in the remake of the 80s sci-fi, according to Deadline.
Haley will play Maddox, who gives the crime-fighting cyborg (Joel Kinnaman) military training before RoboCop goes out to clean up the mean streets of Detroit. It isn’t known which role Baruchel may play The cast also includes Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Abbie Cornish, and Hugh Laurie.
Here’s the official synopsis, as released at Comic-Con last week: ‘In RoboCop, the year is 2029 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alexs life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.
‘Director José Padilha (Elite Squad) reimagines the tale of part man, part machine, all cop starring Joel Kinnaman (The Killing) as the title character, Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises) as the scientist who creates RoboCop, and Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers) as media mogul Pat Novak. RoboCop is being produced by Strike Entertainments Marc Abraham and Eric Newman, with Eric Carraro as Executive Producer. The film is currently in pre-production and slated for a summer 2013 release.’