Ben Child 

Robocop returns in the shape of The Killing’s Joel Kinnaman

The Swedish-American actor is now confirmed to play the cyborg-cop in Jose Padilha's new version of the Paul Verhoeven science-fiction thriller
  
  

Fair cop … Kinnaman will follow in Peter Weller's shoes as Robocop
Fair cop … Kinnaman will follow in Peter Weller's shoes as Robocop. Photograph: Chris Large/AMC Photograph: Chris Large/AMC

Joel Kinnaman, star of the US remake of Danish crime series The Killing, has been cast as the new Robocop in José Padilha's remake of Paul Verhoeven's 1987 science-fiction film, reports Deadline.

Kinnaman had been tipped to take on the role made famous by Peter Weller in Verhoeven's dystopian tale of a Detroit police officer who is returned to duty as a cyborg enforcer following his death in the line of duty. Weller also starred in a poorly received sequel in 1990 but did not return for Robocop 3 in 1993.

Kinnaman plays Stephen Holder, partner of homicide detective Sarah Linden in the US version of The Killing. He is also known in Sweden as the star of the critically acclaimed 2010 thriller Easy Money and appeared in six films in the Johan Falk series as Frank Wagner. The actor has joint Swedish-American citizenship through his Swedish mother and US-born father, and made his Hollywood debut in the Timur Bekmambetov alien-invasion film The Darkest Hour last year. He also appeared in Safe House opposite Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, released in the UK last month.

The new Robocop film may have special resonance in the UK, as the original film depicts the takeover of the city's police force – with disastrous consequences – by a private corporation. The Guardian disclosed last week that the West Midlands and Surrey police authorities have invited private security companies to bid for a wide range of services, including criminal investigations, patrolling neighbourhoods and detaining suspects.

Brazilian film-maker Padilha is best known for the two films in his Elite Squad series about a special police unit operating within the drug-ravaged favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*