David Cronenberg on Top Gun and RoboCop

Canadian auteur David Cronenberg discusses turning down hyper-American projects Top Gun and RoboCop.

Source: Meet the Filmmaker
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[EndlessNameless]

RoboCop is a MASTERPIECE and Paul Verhoeven is one of the most amazing and quite misunderstood director of all time

[TheWaynos]

I could imagine Cronenberg’s Top Gun where the pilots are literally fused to their jets and powering them with their steam room sweat saying lines like ‘locked on to the new flesh, Goose’

[amafirenze-viuh]

The more I see RoboCop the higher I rate it.

[donkeydarko]

Getting Peter Weller & Kurtwood Smith was a masterstroke in casting.
Those two out-of-the-box decisions elevated the material 1000x.
Bless you, Sally Dennison & Julie Selzer.

[gallery]

I chatted briefly with Cronenberg in 1985 and asked him if he regretted turning down "Return Of The Jedi." He said if you're going to spend years of your life working on something then you better love it, or it's going to show. He said he also turned down "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Star Trek II."

[wormskull]

Cronenberg directing Top Gun happened in the same universe where Lynch directed ROTJ, & that’s a universe I want to live in.

[akfreed]

I like how he says he not American . It didn't stop Sir Tony Scott who was British . A British director made the most patriotic American military movie when TOP GUN was released .

[MickeyKnox]

no one other could have made ROBOCOP than Paul Verhoeven

[lv]

We definitely need new movies from both David Cronenberg and Paul Verhoeven.

[brendanokeeffe]

A RoboCop movie made by David Cronenberg would be very very very interesting.

[werdle]

Robocop scarred me for life when I saw it at age 10. And i am glad it did.

[arockfriendly]

I knew he made cool movies. I didn't know he was cool as F#%$

EDIT- seriously, hearing him explain his decisions felt like a brain massage. Artistic integrity, self awareness, respect for the subject matter, forethought....awesome.
EDIT2- Think we can get him to fight David Lynch? I like Lynch, I just wanna see.

[recommendacious]

I enjoyed the top gun sequel more than the original. Robocop is a genius movie

[Theomite]

Cronenberg already did an excellent Canadian take on America with THE DEAD ZONE. I would also argue NAKED LUNCH as well. American material can be accurately represented while also being exhibited exotically, as he pointed out, ROBOCOP did it marvelously from a European perspective.

[jasemalvis]

Robocop was lightning in a bottle. I wonder how the sequels never did it any justice.

[corysmith]

I guess that somewhat explains why he never got into and completely turned down American Psycho, yet at the same time he seemed like the perfect guy to direct it.

[mattturner]

Cronenberg doing Top Gun would have been way wrong....I love Cronenberg doing what he does best, deep, dark, interesting films covering a variety of subject matter. I could see him doing RoboCop though, I think that RoboCop would've been hilarious.

[colinr]

Cronenberg was also attached to Total Recall at one point too.

[jordil]

There's something about golden age Cronenberg films which comes off as enclosed. His films at that time seem to take place in hermetically sealed environments, even when they aren't. Maybe it has something to do with Toronto, I don't know. I don't think he could have done Robocop or Top Gun or anything which requires a sweeping sense of grandeur.

[randomcheese]

if anything about robocp was changed it wouldn't have been the masterpiece it was. It's a perfect movie.