Jackie Earle Haley Will Train Joel Kinnaman's RoboCop, Jay Baruchel Circling

Jackie Earle Haley in Lincoln
(Image credit: Dreamworks)

In an endless stream of reboots, the upcoming return to RoboCop is one of the few that actually shows some promise. Not only is the futuristic property rife with possibilities in the now far more technologically advanced era of filmmaking, the original dating all the way back to 1987 (I was three), but the project has also assembled a pretty eclectic and interested-worthy cast including Joel Kinnaman as the titular cybernetic detective, as well as Gary Oldman, Abbie Cornish, Samuel L. Jackson and Hugh Laurie in supporting roles.

And as the call sheet continues to grow, so does my interest in the project, especially since, according to Deadline, the latest additions include the Bad News Bear himself, Jackie Earle Haley and possibly Goon's Jay Baruchel. You may know the former more from his recent work, playing Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street reboot and Rorsharch in Zack Snyder's adaptation of Watchmen. In the film, the Academy Award nominee will play the military man named Maddox responsible for training Kinnaman's RoboCop.

I can't lie, the first character I thought of for Haley was Emil (Paul McCrane), the gang-member who gets hit by the car after being splashed by the bucket of waste. Man that freaked me out and I can totally picture Earle Haley doing the walk. Who knows, maybe that honor will befall Baruchel should he choose to come aboard José Padilha's take on the Verhoeven classic? I'd buy that for a dollar. Directed by Padilha and written by Josh Zetumer (from a previous draft by James Vanderbelt), RoboCop will commandeer theaters on August 9, 2013.