Despite the fact that Jay Baruchel has films like Million Dollar Baby and Almost Famous under his belt, he’s still largely looked at as a comic sidekick. He’s the skinny housemate in Knocked Up, the dorky fifth-in-command in Tropic Thunder, the no-good ex-boyfriend in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Even his leading roles aren’t too flashy: aside from voicing the hero in How to Train Your Dragon, the actor’s biggest role to date has been as the guy of whose league she is out in She’s Out of My League. But the lanky Undeclared vet is amounting some darker and more serious roles. Recent reports on The Hollywood Reporter are that Baruchel is in talks to take a significant role in the developing Robocop remake.
Baruchel, who should take on the role of an Omnicorp executive, joins a pretty serious cast: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Jackie Earl Haley. Samuel Jackson, a lifelong perpetrator of both action and comedy, often at once, also plays a major role. And Hugh Laurie can handle a joke.
So can the lanky, squinty-eyed comedic mainstay really become a dramatic contender? Is Robocop Baruchel’s transition into more serious roles? Could the days of playing pot-addled right-hand man to Seth Rogen be over? The questions amount.
[Photo Credit: David Edwards/Daily Celeb]
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