This month will see the return of beloved genre auteur David Cronenberg (“Crash,” “Naked Lunch”) to the Cannes Film Festival with his anticipated body horror pic “Crimes of The Future,” which boasts an impressive cast that includes Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart.
During a lengthy interview with Variety, the Canadian filmmaker talked about the studio offers he passed on during the 1980s that included a story about an unnamed Lucasfilm executive/representative hanging upon him when they reached out to him about directing “Star Wars: Return of The Jedi” after Cronenberg mentioned he only directs his own material.
“I do love science fiction and graphic novels. But as a director, it’s different. The ‘Star Wars‘ story. This is a long time, long ago. I’m in my house in Toronto. The phone rings. I’m in my kitchen. The guy says, ‘I’m from Lucasfilm. Are you David Cronenberg?’ I say, ‘yes.’ He says, ‘George Lucas is wondering if you would be interested in directing the next episode of Star Wars, which is ‘The Revenge of the Jedi‘ [The sequel’s original title]. And I said, ‘well, I don’t usually do other people’s material at that point. I only did movies that I wrote.’ So immediately he hung up on me.”
You might remember how director David Lynch met with Lucas for the gig, but he says he started getting a migraine when the topic of Wookies came up. So, it’s not like these folks were jumping up and down to make “Star Wars” movies even back in the 1980s.
Those weren’t the only big studio offers for iconic films Cronenberg got either, as he asked to helm Tom Cruise‘s fighter pilot action pic “Top Gun” and Jennifer Beals‘ “Flashdance.”
“’Top Gun’ was about American military stuff. It’s true that I like machines, I like cars, I like airplanes. But it just wasn’t something I was interested in to direct. Directing takes at least two years of your life. If you watch it, it takes two hours. So that’s the difference.”
Ultimately, British director Tony Scott ended up making the box office hit, and there is lots of buzz surrounding the sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick,” which will be flying into theaters on May 27.
Cronenberg fans won’t have to wait long for his next installment either, as NEON is set to release “Crimes of The Future” on June 8.