'RoboCop' Director José Padilha Wants Fassbender for His Remake

Source: Bleeding Cool

by Alex Billington

There's a story going around right now that includes some quotes from Brazilian director José Padilha talking about some of his ideas and plans for the upcoming RoboCop remake, which he took over earlier this year once Aronofsky was off. The quotes are translated via Bleeding Cool from a Brazilian interview in Portuguese (here) that has Padilha talking about who he wants to star - Fassbender, Michael Fassbender, is the name he mentions. "I'd like to talk to him — I'll talk to him," Padilha says. "There's a possibility... and there's a lot of other great actors that would play RoboCop." Obviously these are just hopes and speculation.

It was only announced in March that Padilha wound be directing MGM's revived RoboCop remake/reboot, plus he's got a project called Tri-Border in the works as well. Padilha is the Brazilian director of cult hits Elite Squad and Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within and is on the edge of his Hollywood debut. "I'll film RoboCop," he says. "I'm indeed writing the script, the writer is here with me in Rio, we've spent over the last 15 days working together, refining the script." But they're still very early on in development, nothing is set in stone. "I'll be traveling back to LA... bringing this new version to discuss with the studio, and maybe begin with the casting, selecting actors... and the idea is to begin filming in February or March," he adds.

As for Michael Fassbender, well, nearly everyone wants Fassbender right now. Not only is he coming off of X-Men: First Class and Jane Eyre, but he's got Haywire, A Dangerous Method and Steven McQueen's Shame coming up, with some potential awards acclaim, plus Ridley Scott's Prometheus next summer. He's an incredibly talented actor, I can understand why everyone wants him. Padilha doesn't mention too much, but this is what he says: "I can't talk yet, it's too early to speak, but there are some actors I like. I really like Fassbender, I'd like to talk to him — I'll talk to him." So the director's current top choice to play the new Officer Alex J. Murphy, better known as your friendly neighborhood RoboCop, is the Michael Fassbender.

Seems like a good choice, especially to follow-up Karl Urban as Judge Dredd. Padilha also confirmed in the interview that the film would be set in Detroit, the same as Paul Verhoeven's original. Padilha was speaking on Brazilian TV talking about how his film Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within was chosen as Brazil's official Oscar entry this year. So it sounds like this could be ready to start shooting as early as next year, but who knows if the studio (MGM) and all parties involved will be ready by then. Fassbender is a good choice, but I fear he's going to start showing up in everything, too many at once. I want to see him in Prometheus first before I really think about his future. And we'll keep you updated on Padilha's RoboCop in the meantime.