Ronnie Rocket instance of project
Ronnie Rocket is an unfinished film project written by David Lynch, who also intended to direct it. Begun after the success of his 1977 film Eraserhead, Lynch shelved Ronnie Rocket due to an inability to find financial backing for the project. Instead, he sought out an existing script on which to base his next film, settling on what would become 1980's The Elephant Man. Lynch returned to Ronnie Rocket throughout the 1980s but by the following decade had stopped considering it to be a viable prospect.
Ronnie Rocket, also subtitled The Absurd Mystery of the Strange Forces of Existence, was to feature elements which have since come to be seen as Lynch's hallmarks, including industrial art direction, 1950s popular culture and physical deformity. The script featured a three-foot tall man with control over electricity; Lynch first met Michael J. Anderson when tentatively casting for this role and later worked with him in Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive.Background
After releasing 1977's Eraserhead, a black-and-white surrealist film and his debut feature-length production, Lynch began work on the screenplay for Ronnie Rocket. He and his agent, Marty Michaelson, of William Morris Endeavor, initially attempted to find financial backing for the project. They met with one film studio on the matter. Lynch described the film as being "about electricity and a three-foot guy with red hair"; the studio never got back in touch with him.Lynch met film producer Stuart Cornfeld at this time. Cornfeld had enjoyed Eraserhead and was interested in producing Ronnie Rocket. He was working for Mel Brooks and Brooksfilms, and when the pair realized Ronnie Rocket was unlikely to find sufficient financing to be produced, Lynch asked to see some already-written scripts to work from for his next film instead. Cornfeld found four scripts he felt would interest Lynch, but on hearing the name of the first of these, the director decided his next project would be The Elephant Man.Lynch would return to Ronnie Rocket after each of his films, intending it, at different stages, as the follow-up not only to Eraserhead or The Elephant Man but also Dune, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. After producing The Elephant Man, Lynch had planned to cast Dexter Fletcher in the title role. Brad Dourif, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nance, Isabella Rossellini, Harry Dean Stanton, and Dean Stockwell have also been considered for roles in the film at various times; each has worked with Lynch on other projects.In 1987, after having released Blue Velvet, Lynch again attempted to pursue Ronnie Rocket. While scouting actors for the eponymous role, Lynch met Michael J. Anderson, whose work in short films Lynch had seen previously. As a direct result of meeting Anderson, Lynch cast the actor in a recurring role in the television series Twin Peaks; his first appearance was in 1990's "Episode 2". Anderson also appeared in Lynch's 1990 short film Industrial Symphony No. 1, and the 2001 film Mulholland Drive. Lynch visited northern England to scout a filming location for Ronnie Rocket, but found that the industrial cities he had hoped to use had become too modernized to fit his intended vision.The project has suffered setbacks because of the bankruptcy of several potential backers. Both Dino De Laurentiis' De Laurentiis Entertainment Group and Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope were attached to the project at different times, but went bankrupt before work could begin. Lynch had stayed at Coppola's home in Napa County, California, while Coppola and Sting read the script several times; however, the failure of 1982's One from the Heart forced American Zoetrope to file for bankruptcy.
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