10 Actors Who Knew Their Action Movie Was Doomed From Day One

Paul Verhoeven delivered one of the great sci-fi/action films of the eighties when he served up the ultra-violent story of RoboCop (1987), the murdered police officer who is brought back to protect and serve as a part-human, part-cyborg supercop. Verhoeven’s style was unquestionably key in creating one of the most successful R-rated genre films of its time.

But the director who would go on to create the likes of Total Recall (1990) and Starship Troopers (1995) had no inclination to return to the character, despite the success prompting the studio to press ahead with plans for a sequel. Peter Weller (Naked Lunch) was the face of RoboCop and, despite his reservations when he found out the Verhoeven would not be involved, was ultimately convinced to return for RoboCop 2 (1990). The film tried to capture the tone of Verhoeven’s classic, but in less capable hands it is ultimately poorly executed in comparison.

Despite introducing a few new neat sci-fi ideas, RoboCop 2 featured some dodgy looking SFX and a pretty boring plot. Weller has since conveyed his disappointment at how the movie panned out, and at the time executing a problematic Frank Miller script put the nail in the coffin for his involvement with the character, as he failed to return for RoboCop 3 (1993)… a wise decision in hindsight!