RoboCopies . . . Or RoboCoincidences?

Orion Pictures knocked down $53.5 million in domestic box-office last year with the sci-fi “RoboCop,” about a half man/half robot cop created by a crime-fighting corporation in futuristic Detroit. Now come the “homages.”

Take Cannon Films’ “Cyborg.” The storyline has an industrialist building a destructive robotic army. And the ad art in Cannon’s American Film Market catalogue looked suspiciously similar to “RoboCop” promo art. “That’s your opinion,” responded Cannon publicity veep Priscilla McDonald. “We did not set out to copy the ‘RoboCop’ logo.”

A source in Orion’s business affairs office told us that there seems to be strong similarities (even cyborg, they told us, means “part man/part machine”) and Orion isn’t happy about them. But “Cyborg” director Albert Pyun insisted that Cannon has been planning a change of title and ad look for some time.

But that’s not the end of it:

“Robo Vampire,” about a mechanical do-gooder thwarting vampires whose bodies are being used to smuggle drugs, is now being filmed in Hong Kong from indie producer Tomas Tang. He admitted “RoboCop” inspired “Robo Vampire” “to a certain extent” but denied that his hero looked like the original robocop.

“R.O.T.O.R.,” a low-budgeter about an all-robot cop who goes violently overboard stopping law breakers, awaits release. It was filmed in Dallas at the same time “RoboCop” was lensing there, according to director Cullen Blaine, who describes the coincidence as “very bizarre.” Production consultant Max Youngstein acknowledged “a similarity, in that the basic story is about: How do we create the perfect cop?”

Empire’s futuristic “Robojox,” in post-production, has “robot jockeys” piloting 120-foot tall robots that settle international disputes, according to director Stuart Gordon, who said the project was announced more than two years ago. About the time “RoboCop” came out, Gordon said, Empire got “a message from Orion saying they were considering litigation” if the title wasn’t changed. But Gordon and Empire like the title: “I don’t think ‘RoboCop’ can claim any kind of exclusivity to the use of the word robo .”

“Decapitron,” in preproduction from Empire, is an urban actioner involving the exploits of a man-turned-machine, according to sources. An Empire spokesman didn’t want to discuss the storyline but admitted that “Decapitron” is probably more similar than “Robojox” than it is to “RoboCop.”

Meanwhile, this latest news from Robouttakes:

The “real thing” will be returning. Orion’s just registered (with the Motion Picture Assn.) the title “RoboCop II: This Cyborg Is for Hire.”