When David Cronenberg was asked to direct ‘Flashdance’: “I will destroy your movie”
In the great pantheon of horror directors, the sleek, silver-haired head of David Cronenberg towers above pretty much everyone else.
Through the likes of Scanners, The Fly, Dead Ringers, and more, the fiendish filmmaker does squishy and squelchy better than anyone else on planet Earth. Throw in his other non-gooey works – A History of Violence, Crash, Naked Lunch – and you’ve got one of the most interesting filmographies of all time. However, like all great directors, he has just as many (if not more) unrealised projects as he does completed feature films.
Cronenberg’s many attempted projects include a version of ‘Frankenstein’, an adaptation of the novel Brother Termite, and a racing movie that eventually got turned into a coffee table book. Many people, including star Naomi Watts, have long yearned for a sequel to his 2007 film Eastern Promises, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen either. He was also at one point considered to direct a movie that would go on to become a massive hit in the 1980s: Flashdance. Yes, that Flashdance.
Released in 1983, the movie follows a young woman played by Jennifer Beals who dreams of becoming a dancer. The film is perhaps most famous for the two hit songs it spawned: Michael Sembello’s ‘Maniac’ and Irene Cara’s “Flashdance… What a Feeling”. It’s also famous for being completely unlike anything Cronenberg has directed before or since.
Speaking at the Marrakech Film Festival, the master of body horror delved more into this bizarre ‘Sliding Doors’ moment. “You might be amazed [that producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer] were totally convinced that I was the right one to direct,” he revealed (via Variety). “Really, I don’t know why [they] thought I should do it, and finally I had to say no – I said to them, ‘I will destroy your movie if I direct it!’” And when David Cronenberg says he’s going to destroy something, you better take him seriously.
It turns out he wasn’t the only entirely inappropriate name suggested for this project. Brian De Palma was also considered, but he said no in favour of remaking Scarface instead. The honour instead went to Adrian Lyne, who had previously worked mostly in commercials. His sophomore feature turned out to be a major hit, becoming the year’s third-highest-grossing movie.
But what did Cronenberg do instead, I hear you cry? Well, by the time 1984 had come to a close, he had released not one, but two films: Videodrome and The Dead Zone. Though not on the same level of financial success as Flashdance, they are both highly regarded entries in his personal oeuvre. Basically, his decision to turn that film down worked out best for everyone.
This wasn’t the only major movie Cronenberg turned down during this period – he famously rejected the opportunity to make Return of the Jedi – but the idea of him even entertaining the idea of directing Flashdance is completely surreal. Unless the movie was going to end with all the dancers exploding into piles of bloody viscera, there is no universe in which this combination would have worked.
