Edward Neumeier | |
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![]() Neumeier at the 2007 Scream Awards | |
Born | August 24, 1957 |
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Years active | 1987–present |
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Edward Neumeier (born August 24, 1957) is an American screenwriter best known for his work on the science fiction movies RoboCop and Starship Troopers . He wrote the latter's sequels Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation , Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (which he also directed) and Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars . [1] [2]
Neumeier studied journalism at the University of California at Santa Cruz, then attended the School of Motion Picture and Television at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). After completing his bachelor's degree at UCLA, Neumeier started work in the Hollywood film business as a production assistant on the TV series Taxi. He went on to become a script reader in the Story Analyst's Union, working at Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures. During his time at Columbia, he advocated for putting Risky Business into production; after the film became an unexpected success, he moved on to a job as a junior executive at the Universal Pictures company. [3]
Neumeier wrote his first outlines and film treatments for his first movie, RoboCop , as well as other spec scripts. He declined an offer of a vice-presidency at Universal Pictures, to develop the screenplay for RoboCop, with Michael Miner.
The rights to the screenplay were bought up by the Orion Pictures company, and was granted a budget of just under $15 million. Paul Verhoeven was assigned to make the movie.
Neumeier also co-produced RoboCop, which was released in movie theaters in 1987 in North America and some other locations. This movie was a success, and it drew just over $50 million worth of ticket sales in the United States alone. The success of RoboCop also motivated the production of two sequels, RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3 , and also two TV series, one live-action and one animated. Most of the creators of RoboCop had left before the production of these sequels.[ citation needed ]
The first sequel to RoboCop, RoboCop 2, was planned to have its screenplay written by Neumeier and Miner. He and Miner had written a dated rough first draft of a screenplay for RoboCop 2 in 1988 called The Corporate Wars. However, due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Neumeier was unable to write any more of the screenplay. The Orion Pictures company next decided to hire the comic book artist Frank Miller to work on his own screenplay for RoboCop 2.
A decade after the first RoboCop movie was produced, Neumeier rejoined Paul Verhoeven to work on Starship Troopers , which was adapted from the novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein, originally written in 1959. With violence and satire thrown into a story of efforts by the human race to ensure its survival, Starship Troopers was more successful in Europe, Asia, etc. than in North America, where it drew gross ticket sales of about $54 million at theaters, although Artforum selected this film as one of the "10 most artistic [film] achievements of 1997". Neumeier also appeared in this film in the brief role of a man convicted of murder and sentenced to immediate execution.
In January 2018, it was announced that Neumeier was writing a direct sequel to the original 1987 film that would ignore both sequels and the 2014 remake. "We're not supposed to say too much. There's been a bunch of other RoboCop movies and there was recently a remake and I would say this would be kind of going back to the old RoboCop we all love and starting there and going forward. So it's a continuation really of the first movie. In my mind. So it's a little bit more of the old school thing," Neumeier said. [4] In July 2018, it was confirmed a new film, titled RoboCop Returns, was in development, with Neill Blomkamp directing and Justin Rhodes rewriting an original script by Neumeier and Michael Miner. [5] In 2019, Neumeier said that Blomkamp wanted RoboCop Returns to be as close to the 1987 film as possible saying that Blomkamp feels that "it should be the proper Verhoeven if Verhoeven had directed a movie right after RoboCop". On June 29, 2019, Blomkamp confirmed that the original RoboCop suit would be used in this film, saying "1 million% original" when answering a fan's question on Twitter. Blomkamp also gave an update on the script, saying: "Script is being written. Going well! Imagine watching Verhoeven do a follow up film." [6]
Neumeier is father to two adult children, Casey Neumeier and autistic activist Shain Mahaffey Neumeier. [7]
Feature film
Year | Title | Writer | Co-Producer |
---|---|---|---|
1987 | RoboCop | Yes | Yes |
1997 | Starship Troopers | Yes | Yes |
2004 | Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid | Yes | No |
2014 | RoboCop | Yes | No |
Direct-to-video
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
---|---|---|---|---|
2004 | Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation | No | Yes | co-producer |
2008 | Starship Troopers 3: Marauder | Yes | Yes | executive |
2012 | Starship Troopers: Invasion | No | No | executive |
2017 | Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars | No | Yes | executive |
Paul Verhoeven is a Dutch film director. His films are known for their graphic violence and sexual content, combined with social satire. After receiving attention for the TV series Floris in his native Netherlands, Verhoeven's breakthrough film was the romantic drama Turkish Delight (1973), starring frequent collaborator Rutger Hauer. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and later received the award for Best Dutch Film of the Century at the Netherlands Film Festival. Verhoeven later directed successful Dutch films including the period drama Keetje Tippel (1975), the war film Soldier of Orange (1977), the teen drama Spetters (1980) and the psychological thriller The Fourth Man (1983).
Starship Troopers is a 1997 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier, based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein. Set in the 23rd century, the story follows teenager Johnny Rico and his friends serving in the military of the United Citizen Federation, an Earth world government engaged in interstellar war with an alien species of Arachnids. The film stars Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Muldoon, and Michael Ironside.
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferrer. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit in the near future, RoboCop centers on police officer Alex Murphy (Weller) who is murdered by a gang of criminals but revived by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products as the cyborg law enforcer RoboCop. Unaware of his former life, RoboCop executes a campaign against crime while coming to terms with the lingering fragments of his humanity.
Basil Konstantine Poledouris was an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator of film and television scores, best known for his long-running collaborations with directors John Milius and Paul Verhoeven. Among his works are scores for the films Conan the Barbarian (1982), Red Dawn (1984), Iron Eagle (1986), RoboCop (1987), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Free Willy (1993), Starship Troopers (1997) and Les Misérables (1998).
RoboCop 2 is a 1990 American science fiction action film directed by Irvin Kershner and written by Frank Miller and Walon Green. It stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan and Gabriel Damon. It is the sequel to the 1987 film RoboCop, the second entry in the RoboCop franchise and the last to feature Weller as RoboCop until he returned in Mortal Kombat 11, RoboCop: Rogue City and other media; it is also the last film Kershner directed before his death in 2010.
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RoboCop 3 is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Fred Dekker and written by Dekker and Frank Miller. It is the sequel to the 1990 film RoboCop 2 and the third and final entry in the original RoboCop franchise. It stars Robert Burke, Nancy Allen and Rip Torn. Set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, the plot centers on RoboCop (Burke) as he vows to avenge the death of his partner Anne Lewis (Allen) and save Detroit from falling into chaos, while evil conglomerate OCP, run by its CEO (Torn), advances its program to demolish the city and build a new "Delta City" over the former homes of the residents.
Phil Tippett is an American film director and visual effects supervisor and producer, who specializes in creature design, stop-motion and computerized character animation. Over his career, he has assisted ILM and DreamWorks, and in 1984 formed his own company, Tippett Studio.
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Starship Troopers 3: Marauder is a 2008 American science fiction film written and directed by Edward Neumeier and starring Casper Van Dien, who returned as Johnny Rico from the original film, along with Jolene Blalock and Boris Kodjoe. It is a sequel to Starship Troopers (1997) and Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004) and the third installment of the Starship Troopers film series. The film was released directly to video in the U.S. on August 5, 2008. It received generally negative reviews.
David Christopher Self is an American screenwriter best known as the author of the screenplays for the films The Haunting, Road to Perdition and The Wolfman.
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RoboCop is a 2014 American science-fiction action film directed by José Padilha and written by Joshua Zetumer, Edward Neumeier, and Michael Miner. It is a remake of the 1987 film and the fourth installment of the RoboCop franchise overall. The film stars Joel Kinnaman as the title character, with Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K. Williams, Jennifer Ehle, and Jay Baruchel in supporting roles. Set in 2028, a detective becomes critically injured and is turned into a cyborg police officer whose programming blurs the line between man and machine.
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