Abbie Cornish In Talks for ‘RoboCop’ Or, Hollywood’s Prime Directive Should Be to Cast Her in Everything
Chances are, you haven’t seen Jane Campion’s gorgeously crafted Bright Star because, well, not many people did. And that’s just a damn shame because the film is not only a sumptuous love story about poet John Keats, but because it also features a luminous performance by Abbie Cornish. While Cornish has often been lumped into those newly-popular “short lists” of potential stars for big films (including both Prometheus and The Great Gatsby), she hasn’t yet been given a role that can truly put her talents in front of a large audience (no, we don’t talk about Sucker Punch in this house). With roles in Seven Psychopaths and An Ordinary Man coming up, that could change, but you know what would really change that? A starring role in a much-anticipated remake.
Like, oh, maybe Jose Padilha’s RoboCop? Good news then, as Deadline Irving reports that Cornish has been offered what they’re describing as “the female lead” in the upcoming film, though it’s not the one fans of Paul Verhoeven’s original might be expecting. The role would be as Alex Murphy/RoboCop’s (Joel Kinnaman) wife, not his partner Anne Lewis.
While the wife character (known as Ellen in the films and Nancy in the television series) doesn’t play a major role in the traditional sense, she (and their son) are always on the periphery and continually make appearances in Murphy’s memory even after he is supposedly wiped clean of human connections (it’s those memories that eventually trigger RoboCop’s realization that he is Alex Murphy). Casting someone like Cornish in this role might signal the Padilha’s film will place a larger emphasis on Murphy’s family, something that makes plenty of sense. The original reports does, however, note that Cornish’s character believes herself to be a widow (but, hey, maybe that changes as the film winds on).
Of course, this all begs the question – who the hell are they going to cast as Officer Anne Lewis?
