In recent weeks there’s been plenty of gossip surrounding the new RoboCop reboot – none of it good. The script (albeit an early draft) was berated online, Hugh Laurie couldn’t commit, and director Jose Padilha (Elite Squad and Elite Squad: The Enemy Within) was quoted online by a friend – and fellow Brazilian director – that he was unhappy with the amount of studio interference. So you could say the film needs a bit of good news. Could this be it?

We finally get to see what RoboCop will look like, courtesy of some leaked images from the Toronto set. Debate is already raging across the interweb about the new look. The updated amour for the crime-fighting cyborg, complete with lead Joel Kinnaman inside, is fair a departure from the 1987 original (as you’d expect) and comparisons to the Batsuit from Chris Nolan’s trilogy and Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man are obvious. I suppose if you have to take nods from somewhere, they’re not bad places to start.

As for me, I’m not really sure whether I like it or not. These are unofficial images and effects work may change the final look, so I’ll hold back judgement until then. I just hope they get the balance between man and machine right – something that really worked in the original.

I’ll be seeing this film regardless of how it turns out – and it’s way to0 early to predict that yet. Any film with Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson and Jackie Earle Haley doesn’t take me 20 seconds to comply. I just hope they remain somewhat true to the original and don’t give us a watered-down, mass-market v2.0.

What do you think of the new look? Are you excited for the RoboCop reboot?

The year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy (Kinnaman) is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex’s life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.

Directed by Jose Padilha, the film stars Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Jackie Earle Haley and Michael Keaton.

RoboCop strides into our theatres on August 8, 2013.

(Source: Coming Soon)