Ecclestone refused Cronenberg’s proposed film project on F1
As Ron Howard prepares a film about the battle between Lauda and Hunt for the 1976 title, David Cronenberg reveals that he was hired in 1986 to make a film about F1, which went unproduced due to the financial demands of Bernie Ecclestone.
In parallel with the famous Venice Film Festival where he presented his latest film, *A Dangerous Method*, David Cronenberg, also known for films like *Dead Zone*, *The Fly*, and more recently the excellent *Crash* and *Eastern Promises*, revealed that he was hired in 1986 by Ned Tanen, CEO of Paramount Pictures, to develop a film project about Formula One.
I had meetings with Bernie [Ecclestone] to discuss with him how we could have set up a modern Formula One film [editor’s note: from the 1980s] and, for example, create a team and have a pit for our team, Cronenberg tells The Independent.
The Canadian also notes that the Briton seemed quite open to this project… at least at the beginning: « All these things we discussed seemed possible [but], of course, in the end, it was all about money » he says.
David Cronenberg also revealed that he had intended to hire the 1982 world champion, Keke Rosberg, to drive the camera car. In his research, the director followed the 1986 Australian and Mexican Grand Prix and met with many drivers, including the young Ayrton Senna: “I asked him about his dreams, and he replied: ‘I dream of the circuit. It’s almost as if I’m driving on it in my dreams,'” Cronenberg explains. He then asked Rosberg if he also dreamed of circuits, to which the Finn offered a slightly different answer than Senna: “No. Why would I dream of that? I already spend too much time on the circuits.”
The film project, therefore, did not come to fruition, which nevertheless did not prevent Cronenberg, passionate about motorsports, from writing the script for a film dedicated to Phil Hill, the first American world champion, in 1961, with Ferrari. *Red Cars*, written after the making of *Crash*, was never brought to the screen, but Cronenberg published his script as an Art Book in 2005. The 194-page book, printed in a limited edition of one thousand copies and featuring an aluminum cover, costs a whopping 250€, while 288 copies are still available for sale for those who wish to make such an investment.
But F1 fans can rest assured, as the film Senna will soon be available for sale on DVD and Blu-Ray, other projects are in the works, the most advanced one for now being Ron Howard’s Rush, revisiting the 1976 season and the Hunt/Lauda rivalry for the title.
To discover the history of F1 in cinema, casinoenligne.uk.com offered a few weeks ago a special feature to discover or rediscover here.
