“Demolition Man” was far from an easy production. An LA Times set visit revealed the film was initially scheduled to run over 72 days but had already surpassed 110 by the time reporter Patrick Goldstein made it to the Burbank soundstage where it was filming. During that time, original female lead Tori Petty was replaced by Sandra Bullock (whose awkward sci-fi love scene is a standout in the final film), Sylvester Stallone pinched a vein in his shoulder and had to rest for nine days, and the movie had seen so many crew members replaced that by the end, a crew hand told the Times, “There’s probably only a dozen original crew left (from a main crew of 160). Joel [Silver] and Marco [Brambilla, director] don’t even know anyone’s name anymore.” There were also numerous cuts made to the story before the final version debuted, including a subplot featuring Spartan’s daughter.
Even before filming got underway, the script had gone through numerous iterations, with multiple screenwriters providing rewrites and story changes. One such writer was Daniel Waters, whose biggest credit up to that point had been on Tim Burton’s 1992 “Batman” sequel, the weirdly experimental “Batman Returns.” Waters has said he made significant changes to the original “Demolition Man” script, to the point he was given first credit on the screenplay. And much of the film’s humor was his handiwork, with Waters telling Vulture in 2020, “There was no attempt at comedy in the first drafts of the script.” That all changed once he’d finished with the screenplay, but one of his favorite jokes never actually made it to the final film.
