Wisconsin Mayor Wants Giant Robocop Statue In His City After Detroit Rejects It
STEVENS POINT, Wis. (AP) — A central Wisconsin city is making a play for a giant Robocop statue after a Detroit museum rejected it.
The mayor of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, wants to place the 11-foot statue in front of the city's police station or in a park to honor actor Peter Weller, a Stevens Point native who portrayed the titular cyborg in 1987′s "Robocop." The movie spawned two sequels and a 2014 reboot movie.
The original movie was set in a crime-ridden Detroit. Fans from that city started crowdfunding an effort to build a Robocop statue in 2012, raising nearly $70,000 from supporters around the world.
An artist group from Detroit created the sculpture. It was slated to be displayed at the Michigan Science Center in Detroit. But center officials last month announced they wouldn't take the statue, saying they needed to concentrate resources elsewhere during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza told Wisconsin Public Radio he's been making calls to the artists about bringing the statue to his city. He even made calls to Weller's remaining family in the city to see if the actor would endorse bringing the statue there.
Wiza wrote on Facebook on Friday morning that one of the artists had responded and told him that the group wants to keep the statue in the Motor City. But Wiza said he's not giving up.
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