Joel Kinnaman talks ‘RoboCop,’ Gary Oldman and filming in September
While promoting his romantic comedy “Lola Versus,” the star of “The Killing” discussed his role in the upcoming reboot of “RoboCop,” starring alongside Gary Oldman “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Soldier Tailer Tinker Spy” and adapting to the fan response to the announced remake.
Collider spoke to the actor in an interview published over the weekend, asking if the fan interest in “RoboCop” was overwhelming the young star.
“It’s like when you say one thing, it’s everywhere, and that’s pretty awesome and a little bit intimidating. It makes you realize you have to think before speaking. That’s a quality I’m continuously evolving. For some reason, it seems like I’m bumping my head into the wall a little bit too many times, but now I think I’m doing alright. It’s fantastic.”
The “Safe House” actor confirmed filming will begin in September as he discussed his apprehension in remaking the Sci-Fi classic.
“I used to be like “Why are we doing a remake? What are remakes being done for?” But then, we do that all the time in the theater. If we weren’t doing remakes, nobody would know who Shakespeare was. I’m not saying that Robocop is Shakespeare, but it’s a way to … we’re retelling. That’s what we do as human beings. We retell our favorite stories. That’s what we’ve done since we were sitting around campfires. It’s a part of the human spirit. It doesn’t have to be negative to creativity. It can be completely opposite. That’s how you can break new ground by rethinking something that’s already been done.”
Kinnaman says director Jose Padilha will bring a ton of new elements to the “RoboCop” franchise, while honoring the original.
“José has a completely different take on this than Verhoeven had, and with all respect, everybody that’s involved in this movie loved the original and we have a lot of respect for it. We’re going to have a lot of throwbacks and there’s going to be a lot of fun stuff for the fans of the first movie. It’s a new story within the old one.”
Kinnaman has signed on for multiple films, but feels even more secure in his decision when acclaimed actor Gary Oldman joined the project as the creative scientist behind the RoboCop experiment.
“That feels about as surreal as me being RoboCop. I couldn’t be happier. He’s pretty much the grand master of the game. I still think it made everybody that voted for the Oscars look bad that they didn’t vote for Gary Oldman, because what he did is so difficult in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It’s a completely different kind of thing. I mean, I loved The Artist. I thought it was fantastic.”
The original 1987 “RoboCop” was directed by Paul Verhoeven and starred Peter Weller as the lead character with Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith and Nancy Allen in supporting roles.
This new film is due in theaters on August 9, 2013. Oldman and Kinnaman are the only cast announced at this point.
