
Jon Davison
Production
Biography
Jon Davison was born on July 21, 1949 in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Davison studied at New York University's Film Institute, where one of his instructors was director Martin Scorsese. While attending NYU Jon staged film retrospectives at the Fillmore East in the East Village. Davison began his career running the St. Marks Cinematheque movie theater in New York. Fellow NYU classmate and future film director Jonathan Kaplan suggested to Jon that he move to Los Angeles, California. In 1972 Davison hooked up with Roger Corman's prolific B-flick outfit New World Pictures, where he initially was the director of advertising and publicity. Davison made his debut as associate producer of "Big Bad Mama." He went on to produce the hilarious exploitation feature parody "Hollywood Boulevard," Ron Howard's delightful directorial debut "Grand Theft Auto," and Joe Dante's terrific tongue-in-cheek killer animal treat "Piranha" for New World Pictures. Jon left New World Pictures in 1980. He produced the uproarious comedies "Airplane!" and "Top Secret!" for Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers. Davison subsequently produced the excellent and exciting science fiction cult favorites "RoboCop" and "Starship Troopers" for director Paul Verhoeven. He went on to produce sequels for those two films. In addition, Jon handled second unit director chores on both "Rock'n'Roll High School" and "The Howling." Moreover, Jon Davison has popped up in small parts in a few movies; he's especially memorable as the tinny metallic voice of the murderous malfunctioning robot ED-209 in "RoboCop."
Known For

An ex-fighter pilot forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning.
Airplane!

Set in the future, the story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an arachnoid species known as "the Bugs."
Starship Troopers

In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company's nefarious plans, he turns on his masters.
RoboCop

Popular and dashing American singer Nick Rivers travels to East Germany to perform in a music festival. When he loses his heart to the gorgeous Hillary Flammond, he finds himself caught up in an underground resistance movement. Rivers joins forces with Agent Cedric and Flammond to attempt the rescue of her father, Dr. Paul, from the Germans, who have captured the scientist in hopes of coercing him into building a new naval mine.
Top Secret!

After a successful deployment of the RoboCop Law Enforcement unit, OCP sees its goal of urban pacification come closer and closer, but as this develops, a new narcotic known as "Nuke" invades the streets led by God-delirious leader Cane. As this menace grows, it may prove to be too much for Murphy to handle. OCP tries to replicate the success of the first unit, but ends up with failed prototypes with suicidal issues... until Dr. Faxx, a scientist straying away from OCP's path, uses Cane as the new subject for the RoboCop 2 project, a living God.
RoboCop 2

A world of the very near future in which cattle, fish, and even the family pet can be cloned. But cloning humans is illegal - that is until family man Adam Gibson comes home from work one day to find a clone has replaced him. Taken from his family and plunged into a sinister world he doesn't understand, Gibson must not only save himself from the assassins who must destroy him to protect their secret, but uncover who and what is behind the horrible things happening to him.
The 6th Day

An in-depth look into the ground breaking franchise and features new interviews with cast and crew.
RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop

When flesh-eating piranhas are accidentally released into a summer resort's rivers, the guests become their next meal.
Piranha

A group of troopers take refuge in an abandoned outpost after fighting alien bugs, failing to realize that more danger lays in wait.
Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation

Clips from assorted television programs, B-movies, commercials, music performances, newsreels, bloopers, satirical short films and promotional and government films of the 1950s and 1960s are intercut together to tell a single story of various creatures and societal ills attacking American cities.
The Movie Orgy

Residents of a friendly Pennsylvania town foil three brothers' plan to rob a bank on Christmas Eve.
Trapped in Paradise

A group of rock-music-loving students, with the help of the Ramones, take over their school to combat its newly installed oppressive administration.
Rock 'n' Roll High School

A rich girl steals her dad's Rolls Royce and heads off to Las Vegas to get married. However, her angry parents, a jealous suitor, and a bunch of reward seekers are determined to stop her.
Grand Theft Auto

Samuel Fuller’s throat-grabbing exposé on American racism was misunderstood and withheld from release when it was made in the early eighties.Today, the notorious film is lauded for its daring metaphor and gripping pulp filmmaking. Kristy McNichol stars as a young actress who adopts a lost German shepherd, only to discover through a series of horrifying incidents that the dog has been trained to attack black people, and Paul Winfield plays the animal trainer who tries to cure him. A snarling, uncompromising vision, White Dog is a tragic portrait of the evil done by that most corruptible of all animals; the human being.
White Dog

Two hundred million years ago, Earth had a single continent. As the millennia progressed, the single continent slowly split off into smaller continents and islands. Thirty million years ago, the country of Japan was part of the continent of Asia, and has since split off into its own archipelago. Another landmass shift is about to occur...
Tidal Wave

A Midwestern ingenue arrives in Hollywood to try her luck as an actress. An incompetent agent hooks her up with a production company which specializes in low budget B-movie fare, which starts being plagued by strange, deadly accidents.
Hollywood Boulevard

A young man who hauls liquor for moonshiners comes up against a competing gang of moonshiners who intend to get rid of him and take over his operation.
Thunder and Lightning

A behind-the-scenes look at director Paul Verhoeven's imaginative re-telling of Robert Heinlein's classic science fiction novel.
Death from Above: The Making of 'Starship Troopers'

This retrospective features both archival and 2017 interviews with cast and crew members. It includes interviews with CG supervisor Paul M. Sammon, executive producer Patrick Crowley, associate producer Phil Tippett, cinematographer Mark Irwin as well as actors Nancy Allen, Tom Noonan, and Galyn Görg. Sammon's 1989/90 interviews with producer Jon Davidson and director Irvin Kershner are excerpted. There is also vintage rehearsal and BTS footage.
Corporate Wars: The Making of 'RoboCop 2'

Documentary about veteran character actor Dick Miller, whose career in and outside of Hollywood has spanned almost 200 films across six decades, featuring a diverse range of interviews with directors, co-stars, and contemporaries.