Peter Weller didn’t reprise his role as the тιтular cyborg police officer in RoboCop 3, and the franchise never explained why Robert John Burke took over for him. RoboCop 3 is widely regarded as the worst RoboCop movie in the entire franchise. RoboCop 3 lost the R-rating of one of Paul Verhoeven’s best American films, it lost the edgy feel and satirical bite that the original had, and, curiously, it lost Peter Weller as its lead actor. Without Weller, RoboCop 3 felt like an entirely different franchise, and many have wondered why he didn’t reprise his most famous role.
RoboCop was, at one time, one of the best action franchises in cinema. The original movie made $53 million on a budget of just $8 million, and it spawned a mᴀssive number of games, ad placements, sequels, and even a potential upcoming RoboCop TV show. Peter Weller stood to make a huge amount of money by signing onto RoboCop 3, yet he turned down the offer nonetheless. Weller actually had a very good reason to turn it down, though, and his replacement – Robert John Burke – had a slew of problems in trying to finish out the trilogy in Weller’s stead.
Peter Weller Pᴀssed On RoboCop 3 To Do Naked Lunch
Weller Desperately Wanted To Star In Naked Lunch & Pᴀssed Up RoboCop 3 To Do So
The main reason Peter Weller pᴀssed up the chance to play RoboCop one last time is because of a simple scheduling conflict. Weller couldn’t star in RoboCop 3 because he chose to film David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch instead, and the two movies were both filmed in January and February 1991. Weller played the lead role of Bill Lee in the unabashedly weird, surrealist, and historically controversial movie adaptation of William S. Borroughs’ 1959 novel of the same name. Naked Lunch follows Bill as he begins experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs and finds himself embroiled in espionage work for several different anthropomorphic insects.
Weller couldn’t star in RoboCop 3 because he chose to film David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch instead, and the two movies were both filmed in January and February 1991.
For Peter Weller, choosing Naked Lunch over RoboCop 3 was an extremely easy decision. Weller told the Canadian newspaper Times Colonist that he had first read the novel “Naked Lunch” when he was 18 years old, and he instantly fell in love with it. One of the cinematographers on the set of RoboCop 2 told him David Cronenberg was set to adapt Naked Lunch, and Weller tried to get the part “Avidly. Voraciously. Like a Pac-Man.” He chased down the cinematographer and asked for Cronenberg’s home address while still wearing the RoboCop armor, and he wrote to the director the same day.
What Robert John Burke Had Done Before RoboCop 3
RoboCop 3 Came As Robert John Burke’s Acting Career Began To Take Off
Prior to taking Peter Weller’s place as Alex Murphy and RoboCop, Robert John Burke wasn’t a huge name in Hollywood. Burke had a few small roles in films like The Chosen and Gangster Wars, as well as in an episode of The Equalizer, throughout the 1980s. It wasn’t until 1989’s The Unbelievable Truth that Burke had his big break and secured a leading role. Then, he had a few more leading roles in films like Dust Devil and Simple Men. Dust Devil was probably his best preparation for RoboCop 3, as his character was just as intense and violent.
How Robert John Burke’s RoboCop Compared To Peter Weller’s
Robert John Burke Could Never Live Up To Peter Weller, But He Was Still The Brightest Part Of RoboCop 3
Unfortunately for Robert John Burke, RoboCop is one of Peter Weller’s most iconic movies for a reason, and nobody was going to be able to live up to his example. The simple truth is that Burke simply wasn’t as good at playing RoboCop as Weller was. That’s not to say that Burke gave a poor performance; in reality, he was by far the brightest spot in an otherwise horrendous movie. He matched Weller’s body language and cadence almost perfectly, and one of the main complaints of his performance – RoboCop’s overly digitized voice – was more the fault of the film’s production team.
The biggest thing that held Robert John Burke’s RoboCop outing back was the movie itself: RoboCop 3 has just 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s also notoriously difficult to play a cyborg or any type of emotionless machine and give a moving performance, which hindered Burke even further. On top of it all, Burke had to act in a 150-pound steel and fiberglᴀss suit that would often pinch and poke him, which made the entire filming process physically painful for him (via Bobbie Wygant). In spite of all the obstacles he had to overcome in RoboCop 3, Robert John Burke gave an admirable performance.
