I’ve been a big fan of Gary Oldman’s for a long time, probably ever since he did Sid and Nancy.
He’s one of the best actors that can do quirky roles in mainstream films really well, much like Johnny Depp can, and for me he really stole the show in the Dark Knight movies as Commissioner Gordon.
You often wonder if he’s an insane as the roles he’s played, although by many accounts Oldman’s one of the nicest actors in Hollywood.
A well known autograph collector magazine has a yearly list of the nicest actors and biggest jerks to fans seeking signatures, and Oldman once topped the nicest celebs list.
So now reports are coming in through Cinema Blend that Gary’s going to be in the remake of RoboCop, but as Blend laments, “Sadly, he’s not the villain.”
Oldman will be playing Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop. Oldman’s the second actor who’s been officially signed to star in RoboCop, the first is Joel Kinnamman in the title role.
As Cinema Blend continues, “Early in his career Gary Oldman was regularly cast as a madman, and we are forever thankful for that, but in recent years he has made a very interesting career shift.” As far as his upcoming RoboCop role, Blend continues that “As much as I like Oldman playing the sage, does anyone else wish he were playing Clarene J. Boddicker (first played by Kurtwood Smith) instead?”
Sure Oldman would be perfect as a bad guy, and no doubt he’d do a great job, but it’s also a little too predictable and cliché. Past a certain point with actors like Oldman, to really pull the unexpected you cast them in the role the audience doesn’t suspect. As we saw in the Dark Knight flicks, Oldman can bring plenty of off-center quirks to a good guy role as well. RoboCop is currently slated to begin shooting this September in Toronto, with MGM hoping for a summer 2013 release.
As for how a new RoboCop will match up with the original classic, it’s definitely got a tough row to hoe ahead of it. As the original RoboCop Peter Weller recently told the L.A. Times, “I say God bless ’em, man, go make another RoboCop. You can throw a lot of CGI at it. The morality that’s endemic to the movie is hard to replicate. It makes you laugh and cray and moves you, and it’s hysterical and horrible and all those unbelievable things at once.”
