Michael Keaton cast as the villain in ‘RoboCop’

There's been a lot of noise around Jose Padilha's RoboCop reboot, the first being Hugh Laurie dropping out of the movie. Then it came out that he was never officially signed to be the film's villain. Then reports came out earlier this week that the director said that this reboot is 'hell.' Supposedly, he's fighting for every idea, and nine out of ten of them get shot down.

For a movie that's about to start filming, none of this sounds promising. How can you start filming a movie without a villain? Luckily, as of today, that isn't a problem. Michael Keaton is replacing Hugh Laurie as the film's villain. Director Jose Padilha confirmed it in a statement, saying that Keaton will be playing Raymond Sellars, the evil CEO of OmniCorp. In case you aren't familiar with the story, OmniCorp is the company that builds RoboCop.

Padilha also said:

Michael is the final addition to the amazing cast we have assembled for this film, and it is so great to have the last puzzle piece in place. […] It is thrilling that everything has come together to bring this innovative new vision of RoboCop to life. We've got a great script, a great cast, some killer ED-209s, and I can't wait to get Alex Murphy back on the streets.

Keaton joins a cast of Joel Kinnaman, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman and Abbie Cornish. Michael Keaton has had a long and impressive acting career. Notable roles of his include Ken from Toy Story 3, Chick Hicks from Cars, Doug Kinney in Multiplicity, Bill Blazejowski in Night Shift, Beetlejuice in Beetlejuice, but is probably best known for playing Batman/Bruce Wayne in Batman and Batman Returns.

I've watched a tons of Michael Keaton over the past year-and-a-half, mainly because my son watched Cars and Toy Story 3 twice a day over that time. I love him, but if I have to hear him say "Kachiga!" one more time…

You can follow Movies and Culture Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ

[Source: IGN]