Dallas IFF 2012 Dispatch: Robocop Finale

Apologies for the late post on my third and final day at The Dallas International Film Festival. The day began by catching up with old friends, but then making sure to prepare adequately for the night's premiere event, the 25th Anniversary Screening of RoboCop in 35mm at The Texas Theater.

Why RoboCop, you ask? Well, in addition to being awesome and totally worthy of a screening because it's a damn near perfect film, to the surprise of many audience members in my screening, RoboCop was filmed in Dallas. Many Dallas cast and crew members attended the event, as you can see from the above photo.

In addition to the film playing the festival, actor Peter Weller, writers Michael Miner and Ed Neumeier, and executive producer Jon Davison were on hand for a very entertaining Q&A.

Among the topics discussed in the Q&A was the obvious question as to why the film was shot in Dallas. "We didn't want to shoot in L.A. at all," Davison said. "We went to a couple of places -- we went to Dallas, and we went to Detroit -- and Detroit didn't cut it! Dallas had two things: It had the seedy 'old Detroit' in places, and it had futuristic modern architecture. It also had good talent, both actors and technicians."

The many lines of classic dialogue were discussed and if you're curious about what Peter Weller's favorite line in the film is, it's not "Bitches leave!" It's actually, "Dick! I'm very disappointed in you!"

Then the topics got serious. Really only one question seemed to bring an air of tension onstage, and it was the mention of a RoboCop remake, currently being planned. When asked if he thought a remake might be any good, Peter Weller gave a poignant "I don't think so." He elaborated on his answer a little bit more, but in general, the original RoboCop himself thinks that a remake isn't the best idea, the same way a lot of us feel, I'm sure.

Despite The Texas Theater's antiquated setup, the screening was very nice and the print a beautiful one at 35mm. Here are some more photos from the event's red carpet, starting with Peter Weller and his family:

Michael Miner, Ed Neumeier and Jon Davidson:

And one more of Weller:

Check out Dallas IFF's Flickr set for more photos from the event.

[Photo credits: "RoboCop Cast and Crew on the Red Carpet," "Peter Weller and Family," and "Peter Weller on the Red Carpet" by Sherry O'Neil; "RoboCop Writers/Producers" by Jorge Martinez. Found on Flickr; used with permission from Dallas International Film Festival (thanks again!).]