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RoboCop costume worn by Peter Weller in the 1990 MGM film RoboCop 2. Auctioned for $17,770 on May 15, 2011 by Profiles in History. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive and Profiles in History.

Location of Detroit’s RoboCop statue to be announced in spring

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson
RoboCop costume worn by Peter Weller in the 1990 MGM film RoboCop 2. Auctioned for $17,770 on May 15, 2011 by Profiles in History. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive and Profiles in History.
RoboCop costume worn by Peter Weller in the 1990 MGM film RoboCop 2. Auctioned for $17,770 on May 15, 2011 by Profiles in History. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive and Profiles in History.

DETROIT (AP) – An 8-foot-tall bronze statue of RoboCop will stand in Detroit, but just where may not be known until sometime next spring.

Negotiations for a site continue, the Detroit Free Press reported Sunday.

“We’re making sure it’s done right and it’s epic and as perfect as possible,” project coordinator Brandon Walley said. “We’re not rushing on it, but it’s been a slow and steady process.”

RoboCop, a 1987 science fiction movie, was set in a futuristic and crime-ridden Detroit. The title character was a police officer who was slain in the line of duty and resurrected as an alloy-encased part-man, part-machine.

The movement for a Detroit RoboCop statue started early this year, when Mayor Dave Bing’s social media manager answered a Twitter query that the city had no plans for such a project.

Activity then surged on social media outlets like Twitter. Some tweets suggested the statue would be a tourist draw for the city. Others said it would feed into the perception of Detroit being plagued by rampant crime.

“My own personal opinion is that I don’t see where we get a lot of value from that,” Bing said then.

A Detroit-based nonprofit latched on to the topic’s viral fervor and set up a way for backers to donate to the project via the crowd-funding website Kickstarter. The group behind the RoboCop project has raised more than $67,000 for the statue.

The Tech Town business incubator at Wayne State University would be a good location for the statue, Walley said.

A foam model of the statue has to be made. A mold will then be cast and the figure will be bronzed. The finished statue will stand on a 3- to 4-foot-tall pedestal, Walley said.

Walley has said some light humor will be attached to the statue’s presence, but it is not intended to poke fun at the city, which has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country.

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Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

RoboCop costume worn by Peter Weller in the 1990 MGM film RoboCop 2. Auctioned for $17,770 on May 15, 2011 by Profiles in History. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive and Profiles in History.
RoboCop costume worn by Peter Weller in the 1990 MGM film RoboCop 2. Auctioned for $17,770 on May 15, 2011 by Profiles in History. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive and Profiles in History.