RoboCop To Become A Reality! (Well, sort of... possibly...)
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:55 pm
Detroit is taking pride in its rough and tumble reputation. Now on the table -- a proposed statue of RoboCop, the (obviously) fictional law enforcement enthusiast who was part man, part machine, but all cop.
The 1987 action film of the same name was set in the Motor City. Now a privately funded group has raised enough money to erect a statue honoring Detroit's No. 1 crime fighter.
The news set off an explosion of Web searches. Online lookups on "robocop statue" surged into Yahoo's top 100 overall search terms. Related searches on "robocop actor," "robocop sequels," and "robocop photos" posted similarly impressive spikes.
So, will the statue really become a reality? Well, at first, it didn't look likely. A fan of the flick sent a tweet to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, saying, "Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & Robocop would kick Rocky's butt. He's a GREAT ambassador for Detroit." Bing responded, saying, "There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop. Thank you for the suggestion."
End of story, right? Wrong. A group set out to raise $50,000 to build a full-scale sculpture. And with the help of a $25,000 donation from an Oakland entrepreuneur, the group has now raised well over the required amount. According to CNN, the statue would "stand on privately owned land near the Michigan Central Depot." The hope is that it will become a tourist attraction.
While the Web interest has been deafening, there are some who question whether it's wise to remind tourists of Hollywood's version of dystopian Detroit. The Christian Science Monitor quotes John McCarthy, a professor of urban history at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh: "I don’t see anything in the RoboCop image that is positive for the city of Detroit." The message such a statue would send would be at its best, "an ironic one."
Interestingly, much of "RoboCop" wasn't filmed in Detroit. Dallas actually served as the backdrop in many scenes. And let it be known that Detroit is hardly the first city to honor a fictional character. There's Rocky in Philadelphia, of course. But there's also Mary Richards in Minneapolis, Superman in Metropolis (Illinois), Ralph Kramden of "The Honeymooners" at the Port Authority in New York, and the one and only Fonz in Milwaukee. Heyyyy, sit on it!
The 1987 action film of the same name was set in the Motor City. Now a privately funded group has raised enough money to erect a statue honoring Detroit's No. 1 crime fighter.
The news set off an explosion of Web searches. Online lookups on "robocop statue" surged into Yahoo's top 100 overall search terms. Related searches on "robocop actor," "robocop sequels," and "robocop photos" posted similarly impressive spikes.
So, will the statue really become a reality? Well, at first, it didn't look likely. A fan of the flick sent a tweet to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, saying, "Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & Robocop would kick Rocky's butt. He's a GREAT ambassador for Detroit." Bing responded, saying, "There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop. Thank you for the suggestion."
End of story, right? Wrong. A group set out to raise $50,000 to build a full-scale sculpture. And with the help of a $25,000 donation from an Oakland entrepreuneur, the group has now raised well over the required amount. According to CNN, the statue would "stand on privately owned land near the Michigan Central Depot." The hope is that it will become a tourist attraction.
While the Web interest has been deafening, there are some who question whether it's wise to remind tourists of Hollywood's version of dystopian Detroit. The Christian Science Monitor quotes John McCarthy, a professor of urban history at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh: "I don’t see anything in the RoboCop image that is positive for the city of Detroit." The message such a statue would send would be at its best, "an ironic one."
Interestingly, much of "RoboCop" wasn't filmed in Detroit. Dallas actually served as the backdrop in many scenes. And let it be known that Detroit is hardly the first city to honor a fictional character. There's Rocky in Philadelphia, of course. But there's also Mary Richards in Minneapolis, Superman in Metropolis (Illinois), Ralph Kramden of "The Honeymooners" at the Port Authority in New York, and the one and only Fonz in Milwaukee. Heyyyy, sit on it!
