Editing RoboCop 2 (section)

== Production ==
=== 1987–1988: ''The Corporate Wars'' ===
[[File:Edward Neumeier 2007.jpg|upright|left|thumb|[[Edward Neumeier]] in 2007. As a result of a five-month Writer's Guild strike and a difficulty to agree with Orion on a story, he and Michael Miner were fired from the project.]]
''RoboCop'' screenwriters [[Edward Neumeier]] and Michael Miner started drafting a sequel in September 1987 due to strong demand by Orion which imposed a deadline of December 31, 1987.{{sfn|Persons|1990|pp=20, 24}} Neumeir and Miner rushed the screenplay as they were also simultaneously writing for another Orion project, ''Company Man''; a film about the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s involvement in the [[Contras]], it was planned to be directed by [[Oliver Stone]], star [[Paul Newman]], and be released before the [[1988 United States presidential election|next United States election]].{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=24–25}}

Neumeier and Miner's draft, ''RoboCop 2: The Corporate Wars'', is set 25 years after the first movie. RoboCop, trying to stop a bank-robbery, is blown up by a thief. The titular protagonist wakes up in a new United States named AmeriPlex, consisting of upper-class "plexes" made out of former cities (e.g. NewYorkPlex, RioPlex, DelhiPlex) and many more [[shanty town]]s with residents named OutPlexers.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=20}} He is revived in a now-abandoned building for the defunct Omni-Consumer Products (OCP) by two goons of a "super-entrepreneur" named Ted Flicker,{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=21}} who plans to make the national government a private corporate entity that he will own.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=21}} Flicker also currently has a lot of control over the country, despite another person (who was a former comedian) being the president.{{sfn|Persons|1990|pp=20–21}} RoboCop's new system is also the central computer system of AmeriPlex, NeuroBrain.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=21}}

''RoboCop 2'' follows numerous subplots, such as Flicker's plan for domination, a violence-spreading narcotic named Smudge, the Internal Grid Security commander trying to commit genocide against the OutPlexers, and RoboCop's code being played with by an American scientist and a Chinese hacker.{{sfn|Persons|1990|pp=20–21}} The script expands upon the first film's consumerist aspects; those in the high-class city plexes eat at LeisureGold where ServiceDroids serve them and make love with SexBots at various brothels; while the environment's media landscape is filled with "NewsBlips," mood-enhancing drugs ads, and MoonDog, a rapper from space, changing public opinion.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=21}}

On March 7, 1988, a five-month [[1988 Writers Guild of America strike|Writers Guild of America strike began]] and its length resulted in Neumeier and Miner being fired from the project for breach of contract.{{sfn|Kelly|2014|p=119}} Additionally, the writers and Orion struggled to agree on a story, with the studio turned off by the gritty parts of Neumeier and Miner's draft.{{sfn|Persons|1990|pp=19–20}} Stone also stopped ''Company Man'' to work on ''[[Talk Radio (film)|Talk Radio]]'' (1988), making Neumeier and Miner no longer involved at Orion.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=25}}

=== 1988–1989: Frank Miller's ''RoboCop 2'' ===
[[File:Frank Miller.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Frank Miller]] in 1982. His script for ''RoboCop 2'' went through four drafts, and he later used an early treatment for a comic book series.]]

In order for a sequel to still be possible, Orion had to sign a [[waiver]] to develop other ''RoboCop'' scripts, and, before he was fired, Neumeier recommended two popular comic book authors to write them: [[Alan Moore]] and [[Frank Miller]].{{sfn|Kelly|2014|p=119}} Moore declined the offer, citing a lack of interest in working on movies. Miller, who had become popular for his [[The Dark Knight Returns|edgy, "tragic hero" take]] on the [[Batman]] character,{{sfn|Kelly|2014|p=119}} signed on to the project after Miner and Neumeier had been fired. His script went through four drafts.{{sfn|Kelly|2014|p=119}}{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=20}} While there had been no reports of Miller taking influence from Neumeier's script, ''The Corporate Wars'', both versions of the script have several things in common, including the concepts of corporate executives trying to buy out entire governments and highly addictive drugs causing mass violence.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=20}}

Miller's first draft was less comic and had a bigger emphasis on [[corporatism]] than the final film, with the last showdown pitting RoboCop against OCP forces instead of RoboCop 2.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=21}} While ''[[RoboCop]]'' (1987) producer [[Jon Davison (film producer)|Jon Davison]] praised its grittiness, "inventive action," humor, and politics, Orion rejected the script as "unfilmable" and brought in a screenwriter of the violent western film ''[[The Wild Bunch]]'' (1969), [[Walon Green]], to re-write it.{{sfn|Kelly|2014|p=119}} Cut material included backstories for Anne Lewis and the marriage between Alex Murphy and his wife Ellen.{{sfn|Kelly|2014|p=122}} Miller later used his treatment as the basis for [[RoboCop (comics)#Avatar Press|his own series of ''RoboCop'' comics published in the 2000s]].{{sfn|Kelly|2014|p=119}}

=== Development ===
Davison had been reluctant to produce a sequel to ''RoboCop'', citing a skepticism of sequels in general. He believed that most sequels were worse than their predecessors, and he preferred to cater new properties to audiences of the first film.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=22}} He was also forced to decide between producing a second ''RoboCop'' film, versus producing [[Warren Beatty]]'s [[Dick Tracy (1990 film)|screen adaptation of the]] ''[[Dick Tracy (character)|Dick Tracy]]'' comics. He ultimately chose to take on ''RoboCop 2'', saying that "''RoboCop'' is my movie and ''Dick Tracy'' is more Warren's movie".{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=21–22}} Director [[Paul Verhoeven]] did not return, as he was working on ''[[Total Recall (1990 film)|Total Recall]]'' (1990).{{sfn|Kelly|2014|p=119}} [[RoboCop#Development|As with the first film]], multiple directors rejected offers from Davison to direct ''RoboCop 2'', although for different reasons; Davison reported potentials were either concerned about following up Verhoeven's directing, or not wanting to direct a sequel.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=22}} [[Alex Cox]] considered the project, but changed his mind after watching a screening of [[Exorcist II: The Heretic|the sequel to]] ''[[The Exorcist (film)|The Exorcist]]'' (1973).{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=22}}

Davison first hired his friend [[Tim Hunter (director)|Tim Hunter]], mostly known for ''[[River's Edge]]'' (1986), to direct ''RoboCop 2'', citing his "realistic tone with actors" and "real dark sensibility" as reasons.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=22}} However, Hunter left the project eleven weeks before filming began, citing a conflict between his vision of an entirely dark product like the first film, and Miller's more humorous script, which he called "tonally unfocused".{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|p=46}}{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=23}}{{sfn|Kelly|2014|p=119}} He was replaced by [[Irvin Kershner]], who had previously filled in as director on ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'' (1980),{{sfn|Kelly|2014|p=119}} and who shared Miller's vision. While Davison had made Kershner agree to not make changes to the script once shooting had begun, due to the state of the script and the tight schedule, Kershner found himself forced to work closely with Miller on editing the script as filming progressed.{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|pp=46–47}} Kershner added more dialogue{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=21}} and discarded several new scenes that Green had added, in favor of the reworks that he was performing with Miller.{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|p=47}} Miller later said that he had only been willing to work with Kershner on revising the script, and that he had rejected multiple offers from other people to do this.{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|p=47}}

[[Orion Pictures]] asserted far greater control over the sequel compared to the original film, and frequently pushed back against input from Miller, Kershner, and the actors. Before the story had been completed, Orion announced a release date during the Christmas season in 1989, then later moved it up to early that summer, resulting in a rushed production cycle.{{sfn|Kelly|2014|p=122}}{{sfn|Persons|1990|pp=19-20}}{{sfn|Johnson|1990b|p=46}} Neumeier and Miner claimed that these decisions were based solely on business decisions and stifled creativity,{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=22}} and Weller said that the film did not have a proper [[third act]] since Orion insisted that "the monster's going to be enough."{{sfn|Kelly|2014|pp=122–123}}

=== Casting ===
Initially, Orion was skeptical of casting Weller, under the reasoning that the audience would find RoboCop the same if another actor was under the helmet, similar to the titular character of Universal's ''[[The Mummy (franchise)|The Mummy]]''.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=19}} Weller himself was also skeptical coming back; he disliked Neumeier and Miner's draft as a "cartoon" and lacking in tension, felt not "complete with the character" thinking "there was something else to say with it," and wondered if he should do months of training for acting in a RoboCop suit, or get paid for filming in the Caribbean for ten weeks.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=19}} Ultimately, Weller returned for Miller and Green's new screenplay,{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=19}} and the fact that he would again work with mime Moni Yakim, who [[RoboCop#Casting|developed RoboCop movements for Weller in the first film]]; he praised him as the "magic element" to solve all of a crew's problems.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=18}} Additionally, Russell Towery returned as Weller's stunt double, with Weller more dependent on him than the first movie.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=19}}

Allen, despite already having played a cop character in the first ''RoboCop'', still made preparations for shooting ''RoboCop 2''; she learned martial arts and spent two months of training at a Los Angeles police academy.{{Sfn|Johnson|1990a|p=48}} Although Cain was originally planned to be a typical professionally-suited drug dealer, his actor, Tom Noonan, came up with the character being a former hippie, with the actor using his experience as one in the 1960s.{{Sfn|Counts|1990|p=45}}

=== Filming ===
''RoboCop 2'' was chiefly filmed in [[Houston]].<ref name="Westbrook">{{cite web |url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1990_711337 |title='RoboCop 2' creators give city rave reviews |last=Westbrook |first=Bruce |date=1990-06-22 |work=[[Houston Chronicle]] |access-date=2011-02-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021011102/http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1990_711337 |archive-date=2012-10-21 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1990_750447 |title='Gremlins' sequel better than the original film |last=Westbrook |first=Bruce |date=1990-12-14 |work=[[Houston Chronicle]] |access-date=2011-02-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021011109/http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1990_750447 |archive-date=2012-10-21 }}</ref> Kershner mentioned that Houston was an ideal location, due to the relative calmness of [[Downtown Houston]] at night. He also claimed that they were shooting in winter, and snow and rain would be an inappropriate climate for film production. [[Jefferson Davis Hospital]] was used as the location for the Nuke manufacturing plant; it also served as the exterior of the police station.<ref name="jeffdavis">{{cite web |date=1 February 2009 |author=J.R. Gonzales |title=Old Jeff Davis Hospital gets state recognition |url=http://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2009/02/old-jeff-davis-hospital-gets-state-recognition/ |website= [[Houston Chronicle]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610031600/http://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2009/02/old-jeff-davis-hospital-gets-state-recognition/ |archive-date=2011-06-10 |access-date=4 May 2020 }}</ref> The finale of the film was shot in the [[Houston Theater District]], near [[Wortham Theater Center]] and [[Alley Theatre]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1989_656716 |title=Hollywood in Houston? Scores flock to filming of 'Robocop 2' |last=Dyer |first=R.A. |date=1989-10-13 |work=[[Houston Chronicle]] |access-date=2011-02-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021011115/http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1989_656716 |archive-date=2012-10-21 }}</ref> [[Cullen Center]] was depicted as the headquarters of [[RoboCop (franchise)|Omni Consumer Products]], while [[Houston City Hall]] was shown in a scene in which Mayor Kuzak speaks to the press. The [[George R. Brown Convention Center]] and the [[Bank of America Center (Houston)|Bank of America Center]] were also included in the film. Additional footage was filmed at the decommissioned Hiram Clarke Power Plant.

With Kershner's first few weeks spent storyboarding the visual effects during pre-production, the first month on ''RoboCop 2'' was night shooting, and [[Vistavision]]-camera background [[Motion control photography|plate]]s for [[Phil Tippett]]'s animated [[special effects]] of the final battle scenes.{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|p=47}}{{Sfn|Persons|1990|p=16}} A week spent filming a major sequence at an abandoned steel mill established how Kershner would direct the film's other scenes in terms of acting, lighting and camera movements.{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|p=47}}

The [[second unit]] was directed by [[Conrad Palmisano]] and mostly shot in [[Los Angeles]],{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|p=48}} although a stunt sequence by the unit was reported to be filmed near the entrance of the [[Wortham Theater Center]].{{Sfn|Persons|1990|p=16}} It got so busy it was unable to produce all the shots Kershner wanted; this meant the director had to film with the unit for a few weeks.{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|p=48}}

A magazine article published at the time of filming described the environment on set as "hell on earth", with the cast and crew rebelling against Kershner's "obsessive finickyness" and "costly reshoots."{{Sfn|Counts|1990|p=46}} However, this was debunked by Weller who said: "Kersh didn't delay anything, he's very, very instinctive - he had his mind made up, usually ahead of time."<ref name="ReferenceA">Cinefantastique Vol 21 No 1 (July 1990)</ref> Kershner said: "I didn't shoot a lot of film at all. You see, if I'd tried to do a lot of coverage, I would never have finished. I would have been 120 days. I had to pretty much lock it in, piece by piece by piece, giving myself an out here and there, a variation, so I wasn't totally locked in. That way, I could finish. If I didn't do that, this would have gone on forever. I never would have gotten each day's work done."<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Although, at the time, Allen praised Kershner for his creativeness and attention to detail,{{Sfn|Johnson|1990a|p=47}} she later criticized the director as antagonistic, and ruining the humor and "heart" of the screenplay.<ref>{{cite web |date=2016 |last=Rowlands |first=Paul |url=http://www.money-into-light.com/2016/11/an-interview-with-nancy-allen-part-2-of.html |title=AN INTERVIEW WITH NANCY ALLEN (PART 2 OF 2) |publisher=Money Into Light |access-date=2020-02-27 |archive-date=February 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227223452/http://www.money-into-light.com/2016/11/an-interview-with-nancy-allen-part-2-of.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/exclusive-robocops-nancy-allen-originals-epic-cast-chemistry-new-reboot-and-verhoeven-vs |title=EXCLUSIVE: RoboCop's Nancy Allen on the original's epic cast chemistry, the remake, and Verhoeven vs. Kershner |publisher=Syfy.com |date=2014-02-14 |access-date=2020-02-27 |archive-date=June 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200624230431/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/exclusive-robocops-nancy-allen-originals-epic-cast-chemistry-new-reboot-and-verhoeven-vs |url-status=dead }}</ref> Peter Weller was also critical of the script: "''RoboCop 2'' didn't have a third act. I told the producers and Irv Kershner up front, and Frank Miller. I told them all. I said, 'Where's the third act here, man? So I beat up a big monster. In the third act, you have to have your Dan O'Herlihy. Somebody's got to be the third act.' 'No, no, the monster's going to be enough.' 'Look, it's not enough!'" Despite the script problem, he enjoyed working on the movie with Kershner: "I had a good time making ''RoboCop 2'' but the script did not have the code, the spine, or the soul of the first one."<ref>{{cite web |date=2013-09-13 |author=Will Harris |url=https://www.avclub.com/peter-weller-on-feminism-sequels-and-more-1798240700 |title=Peter Weller on feminism, sequels, and more |work=[[The A.V. Club]] |access-date=2020-02-27 |archive-date=December 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206170007/https://film.avclub.com/peter-weller-on-feminism-sequels-and-more-1798240700 |url-status=live }}</ref> Noonan also claimed to be "relaxed" and enjoying himself on set, where "everyone was incredibly nice," and found Kershner able to adapt with many location and script changes during shooting.{{Sfn|Counts|1990|p=46}}

=== Effects ===
Phil Tippett returned from the first ''RoboCop'' to do the visual effects for the sequel, this time leading all the effects units.{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|p=48}} ''RoboCop 2'' was Tippett and Kershner's second collaboration, after Tippett worked at [[Industrial Light & Magic]] for ''The Empire Strikes Back''.{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|p=48}}

Most of the RoboCop 2 design was created while Hunter was signed as director.{{sfn|Persons|1990|p=22}}

RoboCop suit designer [[Rob Bottin]], although not overseeing the process like in the first film, returned to produce a new suit for the second film. The first suit was dark chrome using [[metal flake]] and various green, purple and gold colors to create a look made [[iridescent]] and steel-like by [[Jost Vacano]]'s [[Fluorescent lamp|fluorescent]] lighting; however, since [[Mark Irwin]] replaced Vacano for cinematographer and used conventional lighting, the second film suit (although using a black base like the other suit) looked light-bluer, so [[iridescent]] colors were more directly applied with powder.{{Sfn|Warren|1990|pp=12–13}} Thanks to a bigger budget, the effects team had more time to paint and polish the suit, which led to Bottin's desired "show car" look he couldn't achieve in the first.{{Sfn|Warren|1990|p=13}} With a lot of planning and fastener hunting, Bottin also built all parts of the suit to come on and off quickly so that it couldn't decay from the actor having it on too long, which was the case of the first film.{{Sfn|Warren|1990|pp=14–15}}

To create Cain's computer-animated face, Tom Noonan's face was laser-scanned to construct a digital model. The software Perform was used to animate this digital face in real-time, except from when Cain's face first emerges through a 'wall' of computer text, where keyframe animation and early computer compositing techniques were employed. For the death scene, deliberate errors were introduced into the raw data of Cain's digital face, creating the appearance of deformation and disintegration during animation. Once the preferred takes were selected, they were rendered on a high-resolution monitor, with each frame taking approximately one second to render. An automatic 35mm movie camera, positioned close to the monitor, captured each frame. The resulting 35mm film was transferred to [[laserdisc]], allowing Phil Tippett's team to freeze individual frames and advance frame-by-frame. The laserdisc signal for each frame was displayed on a CRT-screen attached to the stop-motion model of Cain's robotic body, synchronizing the facial movements with the body's motion. A movie camera then recorded these synchronized frames.<ref>[https://beforesandafters.com/2020/03/30/robocop-2-the-crazy-story-of-how-cain-got-his-cg-puppeteered-head/ ‘RoboCop 2’: The crazy story of how Cain got his CG puppeteered head]</ref> 

Robocop 2 featured similar police cars as the first Robocop film using customized Ford Tauruses. However they did not reuse cars from the first film, but instead used a new batch of cars that were custom painted for the film in the Houston area at a body shop called Texas Custom Techniques, owned by Harold Day. (uncredited) {{Sfn|Counts|1990|p=46}}