The classic science fiction movie David Cronenberg turned down
In the realms of the body horror cinema genre, few names send shivers up the spine quite like the one David Cronenberg. A true master of all things creepy, with the added benefit of delivering a narrative that looks deep into the soul of humankind, Cronenberg has established himself as one of scary cinema’s all-time greats.
Films such as Shivers, Scanners and The Fly have seen Cronenberg at his most visceral, but he’s also proven his worth from a versatile perspective, with significant contributions to the psychological thriller and gangster movie genres, including A History of Violence and Crash.
While Cronenberg has indeed taken on some of the most memorable features in the horror and science fiction genres over the years, not every project offered to him has suited his needs or desires. The legendary director once explained that he decided to reject Top Gun and, in the same breath, noted his turning down of a true classic of science fiction cinema.
“Robocop, once again, I really thought – I could see that it could be an interesting movie, but it was too familiar to me, and its satire of corporate America was, to me, a little too obvious, I have to say,” Cronenberg said. “This is, I’m talking about, the script. Also, at the time, I think they wanted Stallone to do it, really, and that put a different tone to it, you know.”
Peter Weller had taken the lead role in RoboCop and starred alongside the likes of Nancy Allen and Daniel O’Herlihy in the film telling of a Detroit police officer murdered by a criminal gang, subsequently being revived into a new cyborg law enforcer, embarking on a spree of justice against those who killed him in the first place.
Discussing Paul Verhoeven’s eventual take on RoboCop, Cronenberg noted, “I really thought that the fact they got a European to direct it was great because his perspective on it was quite unusual and outside America and maybe being a Canadian in that case, I was a little too close to America to really get that perspective.”
Signing off on his overall thoughts, the body horror master said, “So in each case, the idea of doing a big studio movie, in theory, is ‘Why not, if it’s an interesting project.’ But I’ve never actually managed to do it; there have been various reasons. So that’s one strange reason that you might not think that I would turn down a movie. I would destroy this movie and not mean to, and it’s sort of like that.”
