Frank Miller’s Robocop commentary by Steven Grant

If you’ve ever picked up a book on writing screenplays, there are rules. Hollywood loves rules. Such-and-such must be introduced here, this has to happen by such-and-such a page. This type of character must be handled in this specific way. This much space on the page equals that much time on screen. There was a time when these things were loose guidelines, rules of thumb. That was back before bankers took over Hollywood, and decided as much as possible should be cut and dried.

So when Frank sent me a copy of his Robocop 2 screenplay, my eyes popped.

Frank and I have been friends a long time, so I know how he operates. Not that anyone who’s familiar with his work doesn’t know the same thing. One thing’s pretty obvious: (…continued)