Robocop

Our next installment of maybe It’s Horror is Paul Verhoeven’s masterpiece: Robocop.

Verhoeven had passed on this project until the intervention of his wife and Barbara Boyle encouraged him to look past a seemingly silly title. After reading the script, then dozens of Judge Dredd comics, Verhoeven dove into the film so deeply that he even ended up making a cameo (in the night club).

On this episode, we feature director and friend, Price James, who will shamelessly admit this is his favorite film. Follow him on Instagram @fisherpricejames to see his upcoming projects, including a Barbie version of his Action Man: Battlefield Casualties ad.

During our discussion, we talk about everything from Robocop’s photo opportunity with Rudy Guliani (which sadly took place with the Boy Scouts and not in front of a landscaping business) to literary references in the film.

If you know Jake, his obsession with Robocop is nearly as old as his fascination with dinosaurs. Well guess what? He even crowbars in a reference to Robocop: The Future of Law Enforcement issue 7 from Marvel, which published in 1990, depicting our favorite chrome-clad cop fighting cloned dinosaurs.

The music was by Basil Poledouris. We discuss the nature of his work and how its satirical style almost becomes a character in this film and that of Starship Troopers, which Verhoeven also directed. Also, side note, did you know he did the music for Hot Shots! Part Deux?

Stop-motion animation was done by Academy Award Winning effects designer, Phil Tippett.

The actors were truly remarkable. Peter Weller plays Alex James Murphy, who is by no means an everyman, rather a what every man aspires to be. His foil, is Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddicker. He embodies slime and scum and everything you love to hate on celluloid. Nancy Allen, who many remember from her role in Carrie, is Anne Lewis, a tough, but tremendously lovable cop. Ronny Cox plays Dick Jones, who is just a nasty person. Imagine rubbing your poop hands in someone’s hair after the horrors of 2020?! Last there is Miguel Ferrer as Bob Morton, the guy who gets the poop in the hair!

Do you want to know how Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner conceived of the film? Details on filing in Texas? Budget? Costuming? Mime coaches?! Well, get in the car, because I usually drive when I’m breaking in a new partner.

Oh, and as a lil extra sizzle for each of those seemingly rhetorical questions: on the set of Blade Runner, it was over budget and over 100 degrees, Rob Bottin designed it but was feuding with Verhoeven so badly that he stopped coming to set, and Juliard professor of movement, Moni Yakim (who just had a new documentary published about him: Creating a Character: The Moni Yakim Legacy).

This week’s “Hidden Track” is Ritual Scars by The Cult Sounds off their new record Death of a Star. https://thecultsounds.bandcamp.com/ https://open.spotify.com/artist/7rZOFb043lVYEmovDuG7dz

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Theme song is I wanna Die by Mini Meltdowns.   https://open.spotify.com/artist/5ZAk6lUDsaJj8EAhrhzZnh ;   https://minimeltdowns.bandcamp.com/

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