Who Will Play the Next 'Robocop'? 'Star Trek' Reboot Star Chris Pine in Talks

Think about this a second strictly from a working actor's perspective, then answer me this: considering how ga-ga for remakes Hollywood is, and how incredibly well J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" did at the box office, would it really be that bad if Chris Pine's name became synonomous with successfully breathing new life into a franchise?

According to Twitch, MGM's newly hired director Jose Padilha is considering Pine to take up Peter Weller's mantle as near-death Detroit cop Alex J. Murphy in his 2013 remake of Paul Verhoeven's 1987 action romp "RoboCop" as the titular Future Of Law-Enforcement.

Call it type-casting, but maybe it's a magic touch Pine has; after all, he is set to also reprise his turn as Capt. James T. Kirk in "Star Trek 2," whenever that finally enters production.

Still, with the release two years away, Padilha has time to mull it over. Pine is, after all, a decade younger than Weller was in 1987 when he starred in the original.

In the original, Murphy is gunned down in an alley by a band of merciless thugs shortly after transfering to the Detroit Police Department. He becomes the subject of an experimental program funded and run by corrupt Omni Consumer Products to create a half-man, half-cyborg cop. He ultimately ends up plagued and terrorized not just by the corrupt executives who created him and the thugs who tried to kill him, but by his own memories of his old life.

Todd Brown of Twitch seems like he writes off Pine as too pretty-boy for the role. Unless "RoboCop" has been drastically and excessively re-designed, I think I missed the part where that would matter. Weller spent over half the original with his face nearly completely covered. Weller's biggest contribution was a droll speaking voice as Robocop, with a little help from some post-production audio engineering. Pardon the rhyming, but Pine would be fine.