Old films for new
In this report I have chosen to explain the remake and original version of the film 'Robocop'.
The film was set in Detroit, Michigan, in the near future, RoboCop was created from police officer Alex Murphy who is murdered by a gang of criminals and then brought back to life by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products as a superhuman cyborg law enforcer known as RoboCop. A lot of the movie was filmed in Dallas, Texas. The film was produced in Hollywood and the budget was $13 million. Some of the visual effects in the film include stop-motion and animation.
It was rated X because of the violence involved in the film and the sexual content.
RoboCop is a 2014 American cyberpunk action film directed by José Padilha and written by Joshua Zetumer, Nick Schenk, Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. It is a remake of the 1987 film of the same name also written by Neumeier and Miner. The film stars Joel Kinnaman as Robocop, with Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Abbie Cornish and Jackie Earle Haley in other lead roles. The budget for this film was $100 million.
The film is still set in Detroit but some of the filming and photography took place in Canada.
The production companies involved are Colombia pictures and strike entertainment.
They used visual effects like green screen, digital creations to produce the robot characters and plate photography.
Both of the versions of this films are based around the same storyline, however there were some changes and adjustments made, for example, the wife and son of Alex Murphy had nothing to do with him after he was created in Robocop in the original but in the remake, they involved the wife and son in the decision of him turning into Robocop and further involvement with Alex Murphy after him becoming Robocop.
The plot involves a Detroit police officer Alex Murphy, who is introduced to his new partner Anne Lewis. They are both out on patrol, when suddenly they have to chase down the ruthless Clarence Boddicker and his criminal companions until they tail them to an abandoned warehouse. The two detectives are unable to get backup so they go in alone and unfortunately the criminals have the upper hand; Murphy is caught and suffers a fatal injury which leaves him basically lifeless. This results in Murphy being transformed into Robocop where his programmed to fight crime in the help of the police force. However, Alex Murphy to overcomes the program and tries to solve his own murder by hunting down Clarence Boddicker and he finds out that he is working for the OCP senior president, Dick Jones. Robocop tries to takedown Dick Jones and Clarence Boddicker but it’s not as easy as he thinks.
Whilst Robocop is still trying to retrieve his memory back with help from his partner Anne Lewis. But in the remake of Robocop the the plot hasn't changed but some of the content is different. Alex Murphy has a male partner in the remake who he is very close and good friends with, whereas in the original the partner is a female that he has recently been introduced to. Also, the way Murphy obtains his injury changes because in the remake he suffers 3rd degree burns from a bomb explosion causing him to result in him becoming Robocop.
The factors that may have an influence on the production context includes, the cultural background; the culture being established in the Robocop series is a typical American background, the original version of the film shows this through the number of humorous commercials in between the news broadcasts within the film. This lightens the mood of the film. As well as the American culture is evident from the lifestyle of Alex Murphy and his family which is the typical expectations of an American household.
However, in the remake of the film it shows an update in American culture and technology. This is highlighted in the difference in television between the two films, in the remake the talk show, The Novak Element, includes holograms, visual touch screens and numerous visual effects; whereas in the original the news broadcasts were very basic and didn't involve much technology.
Another aspect that may have effect the production context is the budgets assigned were different in the original the budget assigned was only $13 million, whereas the remake received $100 million this could allow the remake to have more content within the film and allow them to have a greater quantity or quality of equipment. In addition, the amount of companies involved in the production may have an effect of the context of the film. In the original they only had the help of Orion Pictures but on the other hand the remake had Strike Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures. This meant that the remake had more ideas to brainstorm with in contribution to a better final product, compared to the original which had less help.
Robocop was first released in 1987; which was the year that action and drama films became popular. It meant that Robocop was amongst one of the many successful films in 1987 including, Fatal Attraction, Beverley Hills Cops 2, Dirty Dancing and many more.
The remake had followed on audience from the original and the sequels that carried on from the original, Robocop 2 and 3, so Robocop was originally a film series that seemed had a strong fan base. This fan base will have followed on to the remake.
In conclusion, the film Robocop being compared from its original to its remake, shows that they differ mainly because of the difference in both technology and timing. The plot and idea of the film hasn't changed much but the production content slightly differs, for example, the difference in filming locations, budget assigned and use of technologies in the production. This shows that because of the upgrades in technologies from the 1980's to the 2014 it has allowed them to explore the storyline in more depth than the original and expand on the original plot.
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