Hugh Laurie to play RoboCop villain

Los Angeles - Hugh Laurie is being lined up to star in RoboCop.

The House actor is currently in negotiations to play the main villain in the Jose Padilha directed movie, which features police officer Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg.

Hugh is set to play the villainous CEO of Omni Corp, which creates the title character for its own gain.

Super-human cyborg

This will be Hugh's first high profile film role since his eight-season stint on TV show House ended.

It was previously revealed that Gary Oldam will star as Norton, a scientist who creates the technology that brings the titular super-human cyborg to life in the MGM reboot.

Gary's alter-ego will find himself torn between Hugh's character and the machine who is trying to rediscover his humanity.

Abbie Cornish is in talks to play Murphy's wife, who is led to believe her husband has been killed in the line of duty while Samuel L Jackson will take on the role of "charismatic media mogul" Pat Novak.

The movie is due to begin shooting in Toronto, Canada, this September and scheduled to be released next summer.

A total of three RoboCop films were made between 1987 and 1993, with the first making $53.4m at the box office, while the third made just $10.6m.