José Padilha's 'Robocop' Remake Finds A Villain In Hugh Laurie

After eight seasons of playing the stubborn, selfish, and mean-spirited — but ultimately helpful — Dr. Gregory House on TV, Hugh Laurie is about to go full-on evil for the big screen. The Brit actor has just signed on for José Padilha's upcoming remake for MGM of Paul Verhoeven's 1987 sci-fi classic Robocop, in the role of the villainous Omni Corp CEO. Laurie joins an intriguing cast that includes lead Joel Kinnaman, and co-stars Gary Oldman, Abbie Cornish, and Samuel L. Jackson. More details after the jump.

Like Verhoeven's original, Padilha's Robocop centers around Detroit police officer Alex Murphy (Kinnaman), who's murdered on duty and remade into the unstoppable cyborg of the title. Laurie's character is described as the extremely wealthy head of the insidious company that creates him for their own benefit. Laurie has a proven talent for both dishing out nastiness and oozing charisma — he can even do both at once — so I've no doubt he'll make for an excellent villain.

As we've previously reported, Oldman is set to play scientist who creates Robocop (a character unique to Padilha's vision), so presumably he'll have some interaction with Laurie. Cornish signed on last week to play Alex Murphy's wife, who initially believes him to be dead, while Jackson will play powerful TV mogul Pat Novak.

Padilha is directing Robocop from a script originally written by Josh Zetumer, with more recent drafts by Nick Scheck and James Vanderbilt. Filming will get underway this summer, and the finished product should hit theaters August 9, 2013.