Cronenberg on MTV

Cronenberg: I like it when people send me stuff that’s unlikely — a light comedy or a musical or something. I was actually asked to direct “Flashdance.” And “Top Gun,” as well.

Loder: You’d have made them very differently, I’d imagine …

Cronenberg: They would have been flops if I had directed them. I would have tried to subvert “Flashdance,” I can tell you that. So I said, “I wouldn’t be doing you a favor to direct this movie.”

Loder: Might you ever return to sci-fi?

Cronenberg: I like genre stuff. After all, “Eastern Promises” is a genre movie — it’s a film noir, a crime movie. I think you can use the conventions of a genre film for strength. I did that with “The Fly.” There were things we could deal with in “The Fly” that, if it had been a normal drama, people would have thought were too depressing. Really [the film’s about] two people, they fall in love, one of them gets a hideous wasting disease, and then his lover helps him kill himself. But because it’s within the sci-fi horror genre, people don’t find it so depressing.

Loder: Are there other sci-fi books you’ve always thought about?

Cronenberg: I like Philip K. Dick. I think there are about a thousand movies you could make out of his work, and they keep making really bad versions of it. I was involved for a while in “Total Recall.” I was going to direct that. I had a disagreement with the producers.

Loder: What did they want?

Cronenberg: Put it this way: I wanted William Hurt to star in it and it ended up being Arnold Schwarzenegger.