In case you were wondering how Gary Oldman's career would shift and change after he finally won his first Oscar nomination, for "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," the answer is: it wouldn't, really. We hope he's getting paid more, certainly. And there's talk of a return appearance from George Smiley, while the actor is starting to think about stepping behind the camera again, for the first time since 1997's "Nil By Mouth." But as for his acting roles, it seems to be the same kind of mix of villain roles (see "Leon," "The Fifth Element") and mentor roles ("The Dark Knight," "Harry Potter") that have constituted the bulk of his studio work.
He's got a couple of bad guy turns already in the works: he's about to shoot "Motor City," opposite Gerard Butler, and will also star with Harrison Ford and Liam Hemsworth in "Paranoia." As for the mentors, we're going to see him back as Jim Gordon in "The Dark Knight Rises" next month, and while his mooted parts as the Colonel in "Akira" and Merlin in "Arthur and Lancelot" never came to pass, the actor has now booked a gig in such a role for a summer blockbuster in 2013, as Heat Vision report that the actor has signed on the dotted line to appear in the remake of "Robocop."
Directed by Brazilian helmer Jose Padilha ("Elite Squad"), the remake will star Joel Kinnaman of "The Killing" as cop Alex Murphy who, as in the original, is horrifically injured, only to be revived as part-man, part-machine. Oldman will play Norton, the scientist responsible for saving Murphy, and who "finds himself torn between the ideals of the machine trying to rediscover its humanity and the callous needs of a corporation." It sounds like something Oldman could do with his eyes closed, but hopefully there are some twists and textures in the script that we're not expecting. The film's still casting up, but with a release date of August 9th 2013 already set, the film should be rolling before Labor Day.
