RoboCop: Prime Directives
Encyclopedia
RoboCop: Prime Directives (PD) is a TV
miniseries
released in 2001. It is based on the 1987 cyberpunk
/science fiction
film RoboCop
directed by Paul Verhoeven. The series consisted of four feature length movies: Dark Justice, Meltdown, Resurrection, and Crash and Burn. All four episodes have since been released on DVD
.
stated that they wanted to make use of the TV rights to RoboCop
before they expired and thus ordered that Prime Directives be made, selecting Julian Grant to direct. Grant had a reputation for finishing projects ahead of schedule and under budget. He, in turn, picked Joseph O'Brien and Brad Abraham
to write the series. Richard Eden
, who played the role of RoboCop during the 1995 TV series
, was approached to reprise the role for this series, but negotiations broke down for an unspecified reason.
Page Fletcher
turned down the role of RoboCop in the 1995 series while it was in its embryonic stages of development. Keeping this in mind after negotiations with Eden failed, Fletcher was on the short list to play RoboCop in Prime Directives. He read the 450-page script in one sitting, and was so taken by it that he wept. He subsequently met with Director Julian Grant, and agreed to play the dual role of Alex Murphy and RoboCop.
The previous incarnation of RoboCop was the family-friendly TV series from 1995. Grant had no interest in perpetuating this approach, however, and would return RoboCop to his dark, violent roots. Although Prime Directives takes place ten years after the original film, the production was not permitted to use clips from the feature films. However, MGM had licensed shots of Murphy's death scene from the original film for the television show to use. The creators of Prime Directives took the footage that the TV show used, recolored the shots blue, and used them in the third film in the series, "Resurrection."
Prior to being cast, Page Fletcher had not seen the RoboCop feature films and no effort was made to mimic Peter Weller
's original movements. Page Fletcher instead worked out a RoboCop movement system for himself that he felt was appropriate for where the character was, physically and emotionally.
film (Which was set in 1992-1993, according to the Murphy's tombstone). This series is largely considered an alternate reality to the films as major events of the second
and third
films and the television series
are almost completely ignored. In contrast to the events shown in the films, Delta City is developed and OCP is not dissolved. In the theatrical movie series, Murphy is publicly revealed to have been converted into RoboCop and openly uses his legally deceased name whereas in this series, Murphy's identity remains secret from his conversion until the fourth episode, in which he is legally recognized as Police Commander Alex Murphy, formerly known as Robocop Model 01.
Co-writer Joseph O'Brien stated, "there's nothing in PD that significantly contradicts those other versions. The reasoning behind setting our story ten years later was to just give ourselves some distance, creatively and temporally, to tell our tale, and not out of any disrespect for those earlier incarnations, nor the people responsible for them."
In regards to the character of Anne Lewis, O'Brien went on to say, "As far as we were concerned Anne Lewis is dead. Whether this happened in RoboCop 3 or not we leave to the discretion of the individual viewer."
The first half of the series focuses on Alex Murphy's former partner, John T. Cable, who is slain by RoboCop after his system is hacked to program him to terminate Cable. Cable is then resurrected as a cyborg in most aspects identical to the RoboCop model, save for color and the addition of a second sidearm. "RoboCable" is sent to destroy RoboCop, but after several battles, Cable is convinced to join Murphy.
Meanwhile, OCP (on the verge of bankruptcy) is taken over by a scheming executive, Damian Lowe, who manages to murder the entire board of directors. To bring OCP back, he plans to use an artificial intelligence
called SAINT to automate the entire city.
The second half of the series introduces Dr. David Kaydick, who plans to introduce a “bio-tech” virus (Legion) to wipe out not only Delta City but all life on the planet, infecting computers and people alike. He takes control of RoboCable by planting a chip in him that causes him pain or death, at Kaydick's discretion. RoboCop receives aid from a group of tech thieves led by Ann R. Key (Leslie Hope
), who are determined to stop Kaydick, and RoboCop's own son, James (Anthony Lemke
) - now fully grown and aware of his father's fate.
RoboCop and his rag-tag band race to stop Kaydick from infiltrating OCP tower and activating SAINT, which would presumably kill almost all humans. During the confrontation, RoboCop and James reconcile with each other, and manage to rekindle RoboCable's previous personality. Ann. R. Key and Kaydick both die during a confrontation with each other. Utilizing James's EMP device, and having shut down RoboCop, RoboCable and LEGION are terminated. RoboCop gets rebooted without his previous OCP restriction programming (as well as restoring his identity as "Alex Murphy" as opposed to an OCP product number) or his prime directives. After viewing a goodbye message left by Cable, Murphy returns to active duty to stop the resultant crime in Delta City due to the EMP pulse blacking out the city, deciding by his own that he will follow his three prime directives: Serve the public trust, Protect the innocent, and Uphold the law.
In the epilogue, we see that Murphy and his allies have formed the Prime Directives foundation.
.
Subsequently in 2008, Delta Visual Entertainment reissued RoboCop: Prime Directives on DVD in the UK on November 17, 2008.
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
released the entire 4-part mini-series on DVD in Region 1 in 2003, in 4 separate releases. All four DVD's were re-released in June 2011.
) was welcomed. However, the special effects, locations, action sequences and overall production value have been criticized as reflecting a low budget.
With virtually no commercial promotion, Prime Directives premiered in the US
on the Sci Fi Channel
to lackluster ratings. Despite its poor ratings, it easily recouped its production costs through foreign sales, turning a substantial profit before broadcast and became a regular fixture on Canada's Space.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
released in 2001. It is based on the 1987 cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
/science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
film RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
directed by Paul Verhoeven. The series consisted of four feature length movies: Dark Justice, Meltdown, Resurrection, and Crash and Burn. All four episodes have since been released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
Production
Fireworks EntertainmentFireworks Entertainment
Fireworks Entertainment was founded by Jay Firestone in 1996 to produce, distribute and finance television shows and feature films. Fireworks was acquired by Canwest Global in May 1998, and was later sold to ContentFilm, a British company, in April 2005...
stated that they wanted to make use of the TV rights to RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
before they expired and thus ordered that Prime Directives be made, selecting Julian Grant to direct. Grant had a reputation for finishing projects ahead of schedule and under budget. He, in turn, picked Joseph O'Brien and Brad Abraham
Brad Abraham
Brad Abraham is a screenwriter, author and journalist.His work includes Stonehenge Apocalypse Robocop: Prime Directives I Love Mummy and the National Film Board of Canada produced Hoverboy. He was also an uncredited writer on the remake of the 70s slasher classic Black...
to write the series. Richard Eden
Richard Eden (actor)
Richard Eden is an actor, best known as Alex Murphy/RoboCop in the television series RoboCop: The Series.-External links:...
, who played the role of RoboCop during the 1995 TV series
RoboCop: The Series
RoboCop: The Series is a 1994 television series based on the film of the same name. It stars Richard Eden as the title character. Made to appeal primarily to children and young teenagers, it lacks the graphic violence that was the hallmark of RoboCop and RoboCop 2...
, was approached to reprise the role for this series, but negotiations broke down for an unspecified reason.
Page Fletcher
Page Fletcher
Charles Page Fletcher is a Canadian actor who has starred in films and on television. He is best known for his role on the 1980s hit HBO TV series The Hitchhiker as the main title character from 1984–1990.-Biography:...
turned down the role of RoboCop in the 1995 series while it was in its embryonic stages of development. Keeping this in mind after negotiations with Eden failed, Fletcher was on the short list to play RoboCop in Prime Directives. He read the 450-page script in one sitting, and was so taken by it that he wept. He subsequently met with Director Julian Grant, and agreed to play the dual role of Alex Murphy and RoboCop.
The previous incarnation of RoboCop was the family-friendly TV series from 1995. Grant had no interest in perpetuating this approach, however, and would return RoboCop to his dark, violent roots. Although Prime Directives takes place ten years after the original film, the production was not permitted to use clips from the feature films. However, MGM had licensed shots of Murphy's death scene from the original film for the television show to use. The creators of Prime Directives took the footage that the TV show used, recolored the shots blue, and used them in the third film in the series, "Resurrection."
Cast
- Page FletcherPage FletcherCharles Page Fletcher is a Canadian actor who has starred in films and on television. He is best known for his role on the 1980s hit HBO TV series The Hitchhiker as the main title character from 1984–1990.-Biography:...
— Officer Alex Murphy / RoboCopRoboCop (character)OCP Crime Prevention Unit 001 is a fictional Detroit cyborg police officer and protagonist from the feature film series of the same name. The character begins as a human being who is killed in the line of duty by a vicious crime gang... - Maurice Dean WintMaurice Dean WintMaurice Dean Wint is a British-born, Canadian-based actor who has starred in several television shows and movies; the most notable ones include "Cube", "Hedwig and the Angry Inch", RoboCop: Prime Directives, Psi Factor and the TekWar movies and television series.Wint moved to Canada in 1969 with...
— Commander John T. Cable - Maria Del MarMaria del Mar (actress)Maria del Mar del Castillo is a Canadian television actress, who has starred in series such as Street Legal, Tek War, Relativity, Mercy Point, Terminal City and Blue Murder....
— OCP Executive Sara Cable - Anthony LemkeAnthony LemkeAnthony Lemke is a Canadian actor. Lemke is best known in the United States as "Capt. Grisham" from the short-lived television series Queen of Swords and in Quebec as "David Rothstein" from the hit, mulitple award-winning series Les Hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin.-Biography:Anthony Lemke was...
— OCP Executive James Murphy - Leslie HopeLeslie HopeLeslie Ann Hope is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Teri Bauer in the Fox show 24 where she played the wife of the main character Jack Bauer.-Life and career:...
— Ann R. Key - Geraint Wyn DaviesGeraint Wyn DaviesGeraint Wyn Davies is a British-Canadian-American actor.He was born on 20 April 1957 in Britain, at Swansea. He was the son of a Congregationalist preacher...
— David Kaydick - Kevin JubinvilleKevin JubinvilleKevin Jubinville is a Canadian actor, best known for playing The Shep in Degrassi: The Next Generation and Bob Venton in Rabbit Fall.- Filmography :- External links :...
— OCP Executive Damian Lowe - Anthony J. MifsudAnthony J. MifsudAnthony J. Mifsud is a Maltese-born Canadian actor, singer and songwriter. He performs professionally under the moniker Mif.Mif began his entertainment career as the front man and vocalist for the award-winning Canadian hard rock/heavy metal musical group Slash Puppet , originally under the stage...
— Chuck Conflagration
Prior to being cast, Page Fletcher had not seen the RoboCop feature films and no effort was made to mimic Peter Weller
Peter Weller
Peter Frederick Weller is an American film and stage actor, director and lecturer.He is best known for his roles as the title character in the first two RoboCop films and Buckaroo Banzai in the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension...
's original movements. Page Fletcher instead worked out a RoboCop movement system for himself that he felt was appropriate for where the character was, physically and emotionally.
Continuity
Prime Directives takes place ten years after the first RoboCopRoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
film (Which was set in 1992-1993, according to the Murphy's tombstone). This series is largely considered an alternate reality to the films as major events of the second
RoboCop 2
RoboCop 2 is a 1990 science fiction action film directed by Irvin Kershner and starring Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bayer, Tom Noonan and Gabriel Damon. Set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan...
and third
RoboCop 3
RoboCop 3 is a science fiction action film, released in 1993, set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, and filmed in Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the buildings seen in the film were slated for demolition to make way for facilities for the 1996 Olympics. Nancy Allen as...
films and the television series
RoboCop: The Series
RoboCop: The Series is a 1994 television series based on the film of the same name. It stars Richard Eden as the title character. Made to appeal primarily to children and young teenagers, it lacks the graphic violence that was the hallmark of RoboCop and RoboCop 2...
are almost completely ignored. In contrast to the events shown in the films, Delta City is developed and OCP is not dissolved. In the theatrical movie series, Murphy is publicly revealed to have been converted into RoboCop and openly uses his legally deceased name whereas in this series, Murphy's identity remains secret from his conversion until the fourth episode, in which he is legally recognized as Police Commander Alex Murphy, formerly known as Robocop Model 01.
Co-writer Joseph O'Brien stated, "there's nothing in PD that significantly contradicts those other versions. The reasoning behind setting our story ten years later was to just give ourselves some distance, creatively and temporally, to tell our tale, and not out of any disrespect for those earlier incarnations, nor the people responsible for them."
In regards to the character of Anne Lewis, O'Brien went on to say, "As far as we were concerned Anne Lewis is dead. Whether this happened in RoboCop 3 or not we leave to the discretion of the individual viewer."
Plot
Ten years after the first film's events, RoboCop has become outdated, tired, and quasi-suicidal. Delta City (formerly Detroit) is now considered the safest place on Earth, and he is no longer viewed as particularly necessary.The first half of the series focuses on Alex Murphy's former partner, John T. Cable, who is slain by RoboCop after his system is hacked to program him to terminate Cable. Cable is then resurrected as a cyborg in most aspects identical to the RoboCop model, save for color and the addition of a second sidearm. "RoboCable" is sent to destroy RoboCop, but after several battles, Cable is convinced to join Murphy.
Meanwhile, OCP (on the verge of bankruptcy) is taken over by a scheming executive, Damian Lowe, who manages to murder the entire board of directors. To bring OCP back, he plans to use an artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
called SAINT to automate the entire city.
The second half of the series introduces Dr. David Kaydick, who plans to introduce a “bio-tech” virus (Legion) to wipe out not only Delta City but all life on the planet, infecting computers and people alike. He takes control of RoboCable by planting a chip in him that causes him pain or death, at Kaydick's discretion. RoboCop receives aid from a group of tech thieves led by Ann R. Key (Leslie Hope
Leslie Hope
Leslie Ann Hope is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Teri Bauer in the Fox show 24 where she played the wife of the main character Jack Bauer.-Life and career:...
), who are determined to stop Kaydick, and RoboCop's own son, James (Anthony Lemke
Anthony Lemke
Anthony Lemke is a Canadian actor. Lemke is best known in the United States as "Capt. Grisham" from the short-lived television series Queen of Swords and in Quebec as "David Rothstein" from the hit, mulitple award-winning series Les Hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin.-Biography:Anthony Lemke was...
) - now fully grown and aware of his father's fate.
RoboCop and his rag-tag band race to stop Kaydick from infiltrating OCP tower and activating SAINT, which would presumably kill almost all humans. During the confrontation, RoboCop and James reconcile with each other, and manage to rekindle RoboCable's previous personality. Ann. R. Key and Kaydick both die during a confrontation with each other. Utilizing James's EMP device, and having shut down RoboCop, RoboCable and LEGION are terminated. RoboCop gets rebooted without his previous OCP restriction programming (as well as restoring his identity as "Alex Murphy" as opposed to an OCP product number) or his prime directives. After viewing a goodbye message left by Cable, Murphy returns to active duty to stop the resultant crime in Delta City due to the EMP pulse blacking out the city, deciding by his own that he will follow his three prime directives: Serve the public trust, Protect the innocent, and Uphold the law.
In the epilogue, we see that Murphy and his allies have formed the Prime Directives foundation.
Episodes
| Episode | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Dark Justice |
| 2 | Melt Down |
| 3 | Resurrection |
| 4 | Crash And Burn |
DVD release
In 2002 the complete mini-series was released in the UK on Region 2 by Prism LeisurePrism Leisure Corporation
Prism Leisure Corporation was a distribution and publishing company which primarily focused on reissues and compilations, often at low prices. The company was located in Enfield, Middlesex, United Kingdom, and founded in the 1980s....
.
Subsequently in 2008, Delta Visual Entertainment reissued RoboCop: Prime Directives on DVD in the UK on November 17, 2008.
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Lionsgate Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD distribution arm of Lions Gate Entertainment and most former Artisan Entertainment releases. Its library of more than 8000 films owes some of its size to output deals with other studios...
released the entire 4-part mini-series on DVD in Region 1 in 2003, in 4 separate releases. All four DVD's were re-released in June 2011.
Reception
The return to darkly satirical, violent storytelling (unlike the family-friendly approach taken as of RoboCop: The SeriesRoboCop: The Series
RoboCop: The Series is a 1994 television series based on the film of the same name. It stars Richard Eden as the title character. Made to appeal primarily to children and young teenagers, it lacks the graphic violence that was the hallmark of RoboCop and RoboCop 2...
) was welcomed. However, the special effects, locations, action sequences and overall production value have been criticized as reflecting a low budget.
With virtually no commercial promotion, Prime Directives premiered in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on the Sci Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
to lackluster ratings. Despite its poor ratings, it easily recouped its production costs through foreign sales, turning a substantial profit before broadcast and became a regular fixture on Canada's Space.