Nancy Allen on Irvin Kirshner

"Allen came on for Robocop 2 because it was going to be directed by Tim Hunter, who also helmed River's Edge. 'I loved the script,' which was written by Frank Miller (Sin City), and Walon Green (The Wild Bunch). Hunter left the project and was then replaced by The Empire Strikes Back helmer Irvin Kirshner, who Allen called 'the most miserable human being that ever walked planet earth. I found out later that he didn't want me to return for the role. He then ruined the script, taking the heart and soul out of it. Robocop 2 was missing everything that made the first film wonderful.'"

http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-features/61907-robocop-yesterday-and-tomorrow

It's too bad. He seemed so nice. :(

She seemed so nice...  Is there a script of the pre-Kirshner version?  Has she explained it any further.  Here's a bit of the story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboCop_2

However, Miller's script was labeled "unfilmable" by producers and studio executives. His script was heavily changed through rewrites, and drastically re-written into what became RoboCop 2. *OMIT*  His original screenplay for RoboCop 2 took on an almost "urban legend" status, and was later turned into a nine-part comic book series called Frank Miller's RoboCop. Critical reaction to the comic adaptation of the Miller script were mixed to negative.

I've always been interested in Robocop 2 development, but there isn't a lot out there. I will agree with her that Kershner did a shitty job on that film, which surprised me because the thing was written by Frank Miller, who seemed a perfect match to the violent-comic-book style of the original, but then the script was shitty too. I guess Kersh had different ideas of the film (although he's on record stating he was a fan of the original, so I dunno what happened there). Her comments are a bit vague though, I'd like to know more details about why she feels that way. Still, nice to have honesty. 

I vaguely remember Kim Basinger saying something similar about Never Say Never Again. Both those movies are such blatant paycheck gigs with weird script problems (it has to be basically the same as Thunderball? The hell?), for an artsy guy in his 60s it's easy to imagine him just being a cranky old man in that situation.

Frank Miller is like George Lucas:  One of those guys that did a few groundbreaking projects early on, began believing their own hype about being a "visionary genius", and from then on produced only self-indulgent crap that no one liked.

Robocops 2 & 3 were crap from the minute Frank Miller put pen to paper.

evan1975 said:

Frank Miller is like George Lucas:  One of those guys that did a few groundbreaking projects early on, began believing their own hype about being a "visionary genius", and from then on produced only self-indulgent crap that no one liked.

I really liked Robocop 2, it's problems are the really awful and dated CGI Max Headroom head and it's story is too similar to Robocop 1. 

Maybe that was down to the changes Nancy was complaining about, it's not unusual on a high profile sequel for the Director to get messages from on high insisting on making huge chunks of the film practically the same as the first one, I can imagine that generally miffing Kersh.

I loved the Jackie Chan style abrupt ending and the opening 'crime baton passing' sequence is brilliant.

Probably. There is a section where Robocop is programmed to only do good deeds or something like that. Honestly this film is a mess, and the only thing good is the really cool stop-motion effects by Phil Tippet. The last 20 minutes are worth watching the film, but only barely. I know Robocop 3 got lots of criticism, and to be fair I haven't watched either of these in like ten years, but from my memory I (surprisingly, because I heard it was awful) enjoyed the third film more than the second. Prior to that my only exposure to Robocop 3 was the Genesis/SNES game, which was not that good (the Robocop arcade game was cool from what I remember, but it never got ported). I remember Robocop 2 came out the same time as Terminator 2 and there were lots of knock offs too, so you had all these pseudo-heroic robot-killers sequels that vaguely appealed to children despite their R-rating from about 1989-1991.

none said:

She seemed so nice...  Is there a script of the pre-Kirshner version?  Has she explained it any further.  Here's a bit of the story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboCop_2

However, Miller's script was labeled "unfilmable" by producers and studio executives. His script was heavily changed through rewrites, and drastically re-written into what became RoboCop 2. *OMIT*  His original screenplay for RoboCop 2 took on an almost "urban legend" status, and was later turned into a nine-part comic book series called Frank Miller's RoboCop. Critical reaction to the comic adaptation of the Miller script were mixed to negative.

She might still be nice. Kirshner made a cracking film in TESB but to do so all the planets need to be alligned, you need a bit of luck etc.

Same with Lucas, before TPM came out people loved him, no-one could wait for the prequels. Now 10 years down the line he's looked upon in very different terms.