Questions asked by fans and answered by PD Co-writers Joseph OŽBrien and Brad Abraham.
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QUESTION: QUESTION: How long have youŽve been working on this project?
that he's a ressurected cop?
ANSWER BY BRAD: Actually, Julian, Joe and myself have been on it for over a year, from
the first rumblings - outlines, treatments, etc (January '98) - to
wrapping principal photography (February 2000). There's still some
second unit to go, and post production, which will be finished by
summer.
ANSWER BY JOSEPH: It's been so long I can't remember my life pre-ROBOCOP. It has indeed
been a fantastic ride.
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QUESTION: QUESTION: Why is Robcop "battle damaged" in this movie? Wouldn't OCP repair him every now and then?
ANSWER BY JOSEPH: He's not really on OCP's priority list anymore, so they've let his
maintenance schedule slip a bit. He still works fine, he's just a
little beat-up.
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QUESTION: Did any of you touch on the idea of Robocop as a Christ symbol at all? Supposedly that's what drew Verhoeven to the original film. Are there any biblical allusions in PD?
ANSWER BY JOSEPH: There _are_ some biblical allusions at various points in PD, but we
tried not to be too heavy-handed about it. I'm not a Christian
myself, but it's difficult to deal with a character who has been
killed and resurrected and not end up with some of that in there
somewhere, if only subconsciously. It's a powerful myth-structure (if
you read your Joseph Campbell) that actually predates Christ, and myth
is a very powerful storytelling weapon, but we don't have him
crucified or walking on water or anything like that. We wanted to
keep that kind of pretentiousness to a minimum.
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QUESTION: You've mentioned the possibility of a sequel(s) before, have you
gotten any kind of commitment from the actors regarding this,
specifically Page Fletcher?
ANSWER BY JOSEPH:I don't know if any of the actors are _officially_ comitted to do
more, but I know that Page really wants to. On one of the last days
we were shooting he wandered by in costume and mentioned some of the
things he wants to do differently (suit-wise) "when we do the next
ones". Not "if", but "when". Page has genuine affection for the
character, and he brings a wonderful emotional core to it.
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QUESTION: Did any of you consider if the military would try to purchase
Robocop at some point? Come to think of it, what's the public's
awareness of Robocop outside of Detroit, in terms of national and
worldwide?
ANSWER BY JOSEPH As Dick Jones once said of OCP: "We practically are the military."
For reasons of both story and writer sanity, we didn't deal too much
with the world outside of OCP and Delta City. From a storytelling
perspective, this is a microcosm of the whole world. It's the same
reason they don't send Batman outside of Gotham City much - he works
much better as a character in that closed environment.
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QUESTION: How do Murphy/Cable reload their Auto-9s in PD? Are we just supposed to forget about that detail, like in every action movie out there? ;)
ANSWER BY JOSEPH: Although there are brief shots of Murphy reloading his Auto-9 in
ROBOCOP 1&2, we at Team Robo have decided that Murphy and Cable both
have inboard ammo supplies that feed their weapons directly through
a slot in their hands, We don't explicitly show it, but that's how we
approached it.
QUESTION How do you deal with the chinguard that is strangely gone when RoboCop takes off the helmet?
ANSWER BY JOSEPH: We discussed adding an "explain the chinguard" shot very early in PD using CGI - essentially the piece would have slid down in sections from either side of the headgear and joined in the middle (a la the batmobile shield in BATMAN). Ultimately the idea was abandoned. PD was made on a tight budget, and the time and money it would have taken to produce a shot that had nothing to do with the story just wasn't justifiable. We would have had to give up something else to make up for it, and we weren't prepared to do that. So sorry, but the chinguard mystery is destined to continue in PRIME DIRECTIVES.
QUESTION The makeup of Murphy without a helmet is different from
the old makeup, why?
ANSWER BY JOSEPH: The makeup is a little more streamlined in PD, partially for reasons
of time (because of the tight schedule, we really couldn't afford to
be without Page for the eight+ hours the original makeup would have
taken each day) but also because, creatively, we wanted a slightly
different "look" (as with the full suit), to show that some time has
passed and changes have been made. Also, because Julian wanted a more
"Frankenstein" feel to Murphy _sans_ headgear, the new makeup makes
him look slightly fucked-up and and Karloff-ish.
QUESTION What is your personal opinion of Basil Poledouris's original ROBOCOP score? Which is your favourite piece/track of that score?
ANSWER BY JOSEPH: I love it. Basil Poledouris is the master of BIG HEAVY MUSIC. I also have his scores for ROBOCOP 3, STARSHIP TROOPERS and CONAN THE BARABARIAN, which is the ne plus ultra of BIG HEAVY MUSIC.
When we got the PD job, I scoured eBay and other sources for a copy of the score on CD (I had had it on cassette since its original release). I was fortunate enough to track one down, and it was on constant rotation during the writing process. The editors later used that very same CD to temp track various cuts of PD (prior to receiving Norman's score).
I think my own personal favorite track is "Rock Shop". Dynamic intro (which doesn't appear in the film), followed by a nice low, moody string section that rapidly builds to a critical mass and then explodes with a full-on orchestral rendition of the Robo theme. Kicks ass.
QUESTION What has become of the the Robo props used in the filming of PD? The suit, the guns, the police body armour etc. Did you take any souveniers from the set? (I would have loved to get my hands on one of those police body armours personally!)
ANSWER BY JOSEPH: Most of the props and costumes were rentals, and were returned to their respective rental houses. The RoboSuits belong to Rob Bottin, and went back to him when shooting was completed (albeit significantly more banged-up than when he had sent them out). Some other props were given away as gifts to the crew (David Fraser, who plays Ed Hobley, now owns Hobley's creation, S.A.I.N.T.). The rest are somewhere in Julian's basement, I think.
QUESTION Who's your favourite Robo 'bad guy'? ED-209 or RoboCop2/Cain?
ANSWER BY JOSEPH: Given the choice between the two, I'd have to go with old ED-209. He's big, stupid, single-minded, amoral and excessively violent - the perfect symbol for corporate America in the 21st Century.
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