Chris Pine to play… RoboCop!?

Another day, Another franchise for Chris Pine.
As if “Star Trek” and the Jack Ryan reboot weren’t enough, the new
go-to guy for reboots, Chris Pine, is now being sought to play the tin
man at the center of MGM’s “RoboCop” reboot. Should he accept, Pine will
step into the big mechanized boots previously worn by Peter Weller
(and Robert J.Burke, who played the character in the ill-fated “RoboCop
3″).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
who broke the news, point out that just because ‘Captain Kirk’ may be
the studio’s first choice to play OCP’s favourite guinea pig it doesn’t
mean director Jose Padhila is for him.There
is no word as to whether director Jose Padilha agrees with the
selection and the offer has not yet gone out but we’re told Pine
currently tops the MGM casting list.
If this pans out then it will represent a dramatic shift in the
character. At the age of 30 Pine is a full decade younger than Peter
Weller was when he first took on the role and much more a heart-throb
movie star than Weller ever was. You put Pine into a movie when you want
to attract a young female audience – an audience that Paul Verhoeven
didn’t give a rat’s ass about in the 1987 original, which is part of
what made the film great.
Am I reading into this? Yes, I am. But while Pine has shown that he is
probably capable of more than the roles he has played so far have
given him, this just feels like an odd direction to go. A pretty Robocop
is a silly Robocop. It’s a role that absolutely has to have some depth
to it – and an actor who can carry all of that depth just through his
face – if it is to work at all. I’m not a fan of this and would much
rather see a different sort of actor in the part entirely. Someone a bit
older. Someone with a history of delivering strong characters.

I
have to agree – those sparkly eyes of Pine just don’t suit the role of
Murphy/Robo; an unknown or perhaps even a Joel David Moore or Willem
Dafoe type (there, I said it!) might work better.