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RoboCop looked so good because the movie had almost no budget, declares director Paul Verhoeven

RoboCop director Paul Verhoeven believes the film’s tight budget forced them to get creative

When RoboCop hit theaters in 1987, filmgoers hadn’t seen anything quite like it. The sci-fi action flick blew audiences away with its unique production design and the memorable RoboCop suit.

Peter Weller, who plays the title role, believes that it’s a good thing the film was released in 1987, because it’s not the type of movie that can be produced in the current media environment. “You cannot make this movie today,” Weller said during a 2013 RoboCop panel for weSpark.

Paul Verhoeven, who directed the film, echoed the sentiment, stating that the movie’s dire financial situation helped push the entire crew creatively. “One of the most important things for making the movie was probably the economy of means that we had,” Verhoeven said. “That forces everybody to really be completely creative because the expensive solutions were just not there.


In 1987, the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon debuted - and all our lives were changed. Watch this reunion of the original voice actors:


“We had to find it in another way, and I think the best example of that is when I started to do the movie, I was planning to have a production design like Blade Runner, because that was in my mind," he continued. "Something like that. And I was basically discussing that with John Davidson, and he said, ‘Listen Paul, you can have a wonderful production, or you can get a good Robosuit. You can choose, because we don’t have money for both.’ And that’s why all the emphasis came on the suit."

Despite what likely felt like pressures from the budgetary constrictions, Verhoeven now feels like it all worked out to the movie's benefit. "It forced you to become extremely creative to achieve what was in the script and I think that the movie benefited by that rigorous economic approach put on the table, and I’m very thankful for that," he said.


Joshua Lapin-Bertone

Joshua Lapin-Bertone: Joshua is a pop culture writer specializing in comic book media. His work has appeared on the official DC Comics website, the DC Universe subscription service, HBO Max promotional videos, the Batman Universe fansite, and more. In between traveling around the country to cover various comic conventions, Joshua resides in Florida where he binges superhero television and reads obscure comics from yesteryear.

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