Cinefex 32: Robocop & Innerspace

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RoboCop
Shooting RoboCop
Article by Paul M. Sammon

Big city crime has turned Old Detroit into a combat zone. Decent citizens can no longer venture forth onto the streets, day or night, and even police officers are prime targets for murder and mayhem. Clearly something must be done. The answer as proposed in Jon Davison's production of RoboCop is a new breed of urban crime-fighter — half man, half machine, all business. Engaged to create this cyborg superhero were film director Paul Verhoeven, actor Peter Weller and makeup effects artist Rob Bottin. Also contributing to the futuristic ambience were ED 209 supervisor Peter Kuran, matte artist Rocco Gioffre and a host of others who discuss in detail their experiences on this most explosive of box office hits.

Innerspace
Inside Martin Short
Article by Janine Pourroy

For most directors, getting inside one's characters is an intellectual exercise. But for Joe Dante, Innerspace represented a literal opportunity to explore on film the inner workings of a human being — specifically, supermarket clerk Jack Putter who, as a consequence of a miscarried microscopic submersible pod manned by test pilot Tuck Pendelton. Enlisted to design and produce the innespace footage was visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren of Industrial Light & Magic. Mixing anatomical realism with dramatic fancy, Muren and his associates produced both miniaturization effects and macroscopic excursions through the innermost recesses of actor Martin Short's eyes, ears, blood stream, stomach and lungs.