After eight seasons as the cranky, mercurial, endlessly fascinating Dr. Gregory House on House, Hugh Laurie is finally ready for his first big Hollywood starring role, and it's a doozy. According to Variety he's in talks to play the villain in RoboCop, MGM's planned remake of 1987 Paul Verhoeven classic. If the story sticks closely to the original, that would have Laurie playing the head of Omni Corp, that builds the android police force, and eventually revives the dedicated policeman played by Joel Kinnaman in order to become the half-human, half-android crime fighter we know as Robocop.
We all know Laurie is perfectly good at being mean, so that should be no challenge if he puts on his villain face for this film. And based on Variety's description, he'll also be able to employ the excellent sarcasm he showed for so many years on House, which was arguably the best part of the character. MGM had no comment on the casting news, but with production set to start this ummer-- and the likes of Samuel L. Jackson and Abbie Cornish recently signing on for roles, they've got to be close to finding at least someone to play the villain part.
Robocop has done a surprisingly good job of attracting a good cast, despite being an 80s remake that no one really asked for and still might not be a good idea. I'd love to see Laurie take a big film role, and as funny as he can be, a villain is probably the way to go. Do you guys think he'll fit in the Robocop world of dystopian future Detroit?
