David Cronenberg: Directing Franchise Films Like ‘Star Wars’ Is Not Creative Enough, More Like Playing ‘Traffic Cop’

David Cronenberg is famous for crafting body horror nightmares like “The Fly” and “Scanners” and hard-hitting dramas such as “Eastern Promises” and “A History of Violence,” but one thing the director has never done is join a franchise behind the camera.

Cronenberg got close when he received a call from Lucasfilm for the directing gig on “Return of the Jedi,” but taking on a movie he had no input in creating wasn’t appealing.“I still recall getting a phone call,” Cronenberg tells Entertainment Weekly about his brief encounter with the “Star Wars” universe.

“At that point it was called ‘Revenge of the Jedi’…I was asked if I would be interested in considering that, and meeting with everybody, and I said, with the arrogance of youth — relative youth, anyway — I said, ‘Well, I’m not used to doing other people’s material.’ And there was like a stunned silence and then ‘Click’ — hang up.

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