[Image Removed At The Request of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.]

“You better pray that unholy monster of yours doesn’t screw up.” – Dick Jones, RoboCop

We’ve yet to see a teaser trailer or any official stills from José Padilha‘s 2014 remake of Paul Verhoeven‘s 1987 classic, RoboCop. That’s kind of weird, right? I mean, we’re talking about a movie that began filming in September – is it too much to ask for an 8″x10″ glossy of Alex Kinnaman as RoboCop?

You would think, with as much negative feedback as the film has been getting regarding the re-design of the RoboCop suit, the marketing team behind this remake would want to release some official images and try to stir up positive buzz, but alas, nothing but amateur set photos showing elements of the film out of context, forcing us to evaluate the film’s worth based on a handful of blurry iPhone pictures.

With that being said, a few more set photos have leaked that make me simultaneously nervous and (slightly) intrigued. First, there’s the EM-208 Humanoid Drone. Essentially, this is RoboCop 1.0 – a prototype for the technology that will ultimately resurrect Alex J. Murphy as a cybernetic law enforcer.

Thanks to our friends at ComingSoon.net, the film enthusiast community has their first look at Joel Kinnaman (The Killing) in the new RoboCop suit! Director Jose Padilha‘s remake of RoboCop began filming today in Toronto, where Kinnaman was spotted in costume. Check out the photos here below.

Recently, a draft of the screenplay by Josh Zetumer and Nick Schenk was leaked onto the Internet, which revealed that there would be numerous versions of RoboCop as OmniCorp refined their design, so while I doubt this will be the only RoboCop suit you see Kinnaman in; I think this is probably the final, combat-ready design.

Those who had been slightly turned around on the decision to remake the sci-fi classic RoboCop thanks to the very impressive cast that had been assembled were again disappointed when it was announced that Hugh Laurie, who was once in talks to play one of the film’s villains, had departed the project. But now it looks like an equally appealing name will be stepping into Laurie’s villainous role.

It’s being reported that the great Michael Keaton has joined the cast, where he’ll play the not-so-friendly CEO of the company that builds RoboCop.

Hugh Laurie taking a pass on the villain role in Jose Padilha‘s Robocop may have been a sign of things to come. Apparently things aren’t looking good for the upcoming remake, and filming hasn’t even started yet. The rift is between Padilha and MGM. Studio heads and directors butting heads isn’t anything new really. But things have gotten so bad that Padilha talked about his problems to his colleague and Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles about the developmental problems that are occurring before production begins next September.

ScreenCrush found a translated interview made by Cinemacom Rapadura. According to the report, the studio is getting in the way of Padilha’s vision for the film. Not so surprising since a studio gives their input on what they would like to see in a film that they will fund and distribute. But things are so bad between Padilha and MGM that Padilha can’t even get around to putting his ideas in the film.

After House ended its series run earlier this year, Hugh Laurie was to make the jump to films starting off with a role as the villain in Jose Padilha’s Robocop. Now reports are coming in confirming that he won’t be in the film after all. Jeff Sneider of Variety reports that Laurie never had his deal finalized, even though he was in talks to star.

Sneider wrote: “HUGH LAURIE definitely out of ROBOCOP reboot, not that he was ever “˜in.'”

As to who his replacement could be, Deadline says that Clive Owen is in talks to play the rich CEO of OmniCorp, the organization that turns Detroit police officer Alex Murphy from a near-dead man into a half-human half-robot law enforcer. Of course this is done to make a profit and not protect the citizens of Detroit.