Trivia / RoboCop (2014)

• Ability over Appearance: Joel Kinnaman was chosen not because of his ability to replicate Peter Weller, playing RoboCop but because of his ability to portray the emotions intended for someone who has to see the Body Horror he endured from his near-fatal car bomb injury. This, and Joel's ability to mute his emotions when Dennet Norton starts tinkering with his chemistry.
• California Doubling:
  • Toronto stands in as the film's Detroit. A few externals are still of the Motor City to make it more believable.
  • The movie poster features the four skyscrapers of the Cuatro Torres Business Area in Madrid, Spain
• Disowned Adaptation: Paul Verhoeven was skeptical of the remake, saying that it was typical of the lack of fresh ideas in Hollywood. He was even less impressed by the finished movie, commenting that, just like Total Recall (2012), it lacked the humor that made the original work so well.
• Executive Meddling: In an interview with Brazilian newspaper Folha, Padilha's friend and fellow director Fernando Meirelles revealed that Padilha had to face a lot of this from Sony during pre-production, with his ideas for the movie being constantly rejected. According to Merielles, Padilha called it the worst experience of his career, to the point where this along with the film's failure may have played a role in Padilha refusing to helm another movie in Hollywood.
• Fake American: Gary Oldman, obviously, and Canadian Jay Baruchel (although his character's nationality is not explicitly mentioned). Perhaps less well-known, Abbie Cornish is Australian and Joel Kinnaman is Swedish.^note His father was an American who escaped from the US to avoid chances of being conscripted to serve in Vietnam.
• Fake Nationality: Aside from Sellars and Mattox who are played by American actors, most of the main cast are not. Jae Kim (a Korean name) is played by Latina actress Aimee Garcia.
• Missing Trailer Scene: While all the scenes in the trailer are in the movie, the sound effects on RoboCop's voice in the trailer were never used in the movie.
• Playing Against Type: Though by this point, Gary Oldman may be shifting types, having portrayed sympathetic and/or heroic characters in The Scarlet Letter (1995), Harry Potter, The Dark Knight Trilogy, A Christmas Carol (2009), Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and now this.
• Stillborn Franchise: The film was supposed to restart the RoboCop franchise after RoboCop 3 caused it to go comatose for 21 years. Instead, its mixed reception and poor US box office gross resulted in a sequel getting shelved and then ultimately canned in favor of another reboot, which will be a sequel to the first film and rendering the original sequels non-canon.
• Technology Marches On: A lot of RoboCop's new gimmicks compared to the original. Of special note, the interface spike is completely gone in favor of wireless.
• Throw It In!: According to the director, Jackie Earle Haley's "I wouldn't buy that for a dollar" line was an ad-lib.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Director José Padilha and actor Joel Kinnaman originally wanted the film to have an R rating. However, the budget more than doubled and thus the crew had to make the film rated PG-13 to make it more marketable overseas.
  • Darren Aronofsky was originally attached as the director.
  • Russell Crowe, Michael Fassbender and Chris Pine were originally approached for the lead role. Matthias Schoenaerts was offered the role but turned it down, Saying he "wasn't prepared for a big movie like this yet."
  • Hugh Laurie was in talks to play the role of Raymond Sellars, but contract negotiations broke down between him and the film's producers. Clive Owen was seriously considered as a replacement.
  • Edward Norton turned down the role of Dr. Dennett Norton.
  • Sean Penn turned down the role of Pat Novak.
  • Rebecca Hall turned down the role of Clara Murphy, while Jessica Alba, Kate Mara and Keri Russell auditioned.
  • Gael García Bernal, Alexander Skarsgard and Logan Marshall-Green were considered for the role of Jack Lewis

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