The writers also introduced an element of virtual romance and deus ex machina in the persona of Diana, formerly a secretary to crooked Vice-President Chip Chaykin, who becomes transmogrified through her death into the 'face' and 'body' of Metronet, OCP's city-running super-computer. Gadget, along with the presence of Jimmy Murphy did much to shift the focus from the adult to the youth target audience.
The series gave writers more of an opportunity to develop the central characters and to extend the human interest aspect through the introduction of Gadget the station mascot and the adopted, insightful daughter of station Sergeant Parks. Mallardo, OCP executive Chip Chayken, William Ray "Pudface" Morgan, Vlad "Don't call me Stitch" Molotov and Commander Cash (although, in one episode, it is revealed that Commander Cash was actually a misunderstood hero - a former OCP employee who was the real creator of OCP's Commander Cash toy line whose idea was stolen by a co-worker and subsequently terminated from the company due to the said coworker). Villains on the series include Boppo the Clown, Dr. It was adapted from a discarded RoboCop 2 script, Corporate Wars, by the writers of the original RoboCop, Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. Expense played a significant part in this according to Skyvision VP Kevin Gillis, episodes would be produced at $1.2 million to $1.5 million each. Twenty-two episodes were made, but the series was not renewed for a second season. Skyvision was also in negotiation with Peter Weller, the original RoboCop, but this did not come to fruition. The series was filmed in Toronto and Mississauga, Canada and originally planned for a January 1994 debut, several months after the unsuccessful release of RoboCop 3. This allowed access to co-production treaties and possible partnerships with other countries.
The film aims pretty high and for the most part succeeds.While RoboCop was initially an American property, Orion Pictures received a $500,000 cash infusion for TV licensing rights to Canada's Skyvision Entertainment.
From the director on down to the actors you can tell they cared about this movie and gave their best. All-in-all (and I can't believe I'm saying this) I liked this film as much as the original. I went into Robocop expecting disappointment, but in spite of being at odds with it at the start I found myself swept up in what turned out to be a pretty engaging story. However I doubt there's much here to appeal to a thirteen year old crowd-yes there's action-but the dialogue, character development and the underlying ethical questions the film raises are all geared toward more of an adult audience. There is action violence here and for me the PG-13 rating didn't really hurt it.
I didn't even notice the lack of gore in this film and honestly didn't consider it until afterwards. I was really happy to see him back in a larger roll again and he fits into this quite well. Lastly, Michael Keeton plays the slimy CEO of Omnicorp Raymond Sellars, with relish. Gary Oldman is my personal favorite, as a doctor who finds himself sacrificing personal ethic for funding. He brought a gravity to the character I didn't expect. I liked Joel Kinnaman (who I hadn't seen previously) as Alex Murphy. The actors really give their all in their respective rolls there's not one performance that is dialed in. The direction feels tight as does the script and cinematography.
The effects of Murphy's transformation on both his family and his mind, make for a really interesting and less straight forward action flick. There is more time taken to build a world and characters that live and breathe, which in turn makes for a better-rounded film. Here the focus is on the emotional and psychological stakes as much as the physical stakes for our lead character. Robocop (2014) is more of a re-imagining of the original story, rather than a simple remake of basically the same script.