RoboCop began as a spec script by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner in the mid-1980s, a satire of corporate culture and a Detroit in decline, and it was an unusual project for a major studio. Orion Pictures' executives wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger for the lead, but the producers and director Paul Verhoeven judged him too physically imposing for a helmeted robot cop and feared he would look like a mascot. The role went to Peter Weller, chosen partly for his low salary and martial-arts training, who spent months with a mime to develop his movement style. Verhoeven's approach shifted the film from the writers' comic satire toward a more serious, comic-book tone. The result mixes violent action with biting commentary on greed and privatisation.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.