Edward Neumeier | |
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 Neumeier at the 2007 Scream Awards | |
| Born | (1957-08-24)August 24, 1957 (age 67) |
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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 moviesRoboCop andStarship Troopers. He wrote the latter's sequelsStarship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation,Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (which he also directed) andStarship Troopers: Traitor of Mars.[1][2]
Neumeier studiedjournalism at theUniversity of California at Santa Cruz, then attended the School of Motion Picture and Television atUniversity of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). After completing hisbachelor's degree at UCLA, Neumeier started work in the Hollywood film business as aproduction assistant on the TV seriesTaxi. He went on to become ascript reader in theStory Analyst's Union, working atParamount Pictures andColumbia Pictures. During his time at Columbia, he advocated for puttingRisky Business into production; after the film became an unexpected success, he moved on to a job as a junior executive at theUniversal Pictures company.[3]
Neumeier wrote his first outlines andfilm treatments for his first movie,RoboCop, as well as otherspec scripts. He declined an offer of avice-presidency at Universal Pictures, to develop the screenplay forRoboCop, with Michael Miner.
The rights to the screenplay were bought up by theOrion Pictures company, and was granted a budget of just under $15 million.Paul Verhoeven was assigned to make the movie.
Neumeier also co-producedRoboCop, 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 ofRoboCop also motivated the production of two sequels,RoboCop 2 andRoboCop 3, and also twoTV series, one live-action and oneanimated. Most of the creators ofRoboCop had left before the production of these sequels.[citation needed]
The first sequel toRoboCop,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 forRoboCop 2 in 1988 called The Corporate Wars. However, due to the1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Neumeier was unable to write any more of the screenplay. The Orion Pictures company next decided to hire thecomic book artistFrank Miller to work on his own screenplay forRoboCop 2.
A decade after the firstRoboCop movie was produced, Neumeier rejoined Paul Verhoeven to work onStarship Troopers, which was adapted from the novel of the same name byRobert 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 inNorth America, where it drew gross ticket sales of about $54 million at theaters, althoughArtforum 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 otherRoboCop movies and there was recently a remake and I would say this would be kind of going back to the oldRoboCop 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, titledRoboCop Returns, was in development, withNeill Blomkamp directing and Justin Rhodes rewriting an original script by Neumeier and Michael Miner.[5] In 2019, Neumeier said that Blomkamp wantedRoboCop Returns to be as close to the 1987 film as possible saying that Blomkamp feels that "it should be the properVerhoeven if Verhoeven had directed a movie right afterRoboCop". 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 onTwitter. 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 has two children: Casey Neumeier andautistic activistShain 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 |
Media related toEdward Neumeier at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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