Roger Corman Returns to the Track for Death Race 2050

Roger Corman, the 90-year-old producer/writer/director comes from a nearly extinct generation that refers to movies as “pictures.” It’s quite charming, but also a bit sad. They don’t make guys like Corman anymore—directors who make lovably trashy genre pictures without winking, detached irony. The Detroit native’s knack for sniffing out talent is unparalleled, with Corman nurturing the early careers of Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron and Martin Scorsese, among many others. With almost zero budget and shooting days, the Corman school of film was trial by fire. Necessity was the mother of invention, and what Corman’s films lacked in polish, they more than made up for in gonzo intensity and a passionate love that radiated through the film stock.
We caught up with the “King of the B-Movies” to discuss his return as producer to the faithfully updated Death Race 2050, a rapidly changing film industry, and the gushing pride he feels for one of his most illustrious proteges.
Paste: What made you want to return to the Death Race?
Roger Corman: The original Death Race 2000 was quite successful—it won some poll as the “Greatest B-Movie of all time.” I emphasize the letter “B” because it was a true B-movie—a car racing picture set in the near future. It also had some unique ideas behind it, particularly the relationship between violence and spectators.
I had made a number of car racing pictures, and they had all been successful, but I felt I had to do something different this time. It couldn’t just be car racing. The first idea was that the drivers knocked each other off the road, but I wanted to add something else. I felt like the ultimate would be to integrate the audience into the violence, and from that I came up with the drivers getting points for the killing of pedestrians. I loved that idea but realized that I couldn’t take that concept too seriously. That’s when the film became something of a black comedy with social commentary.
[For Death Race 2050], I was thinking about how society might change by 2050. The United States of America has become the United Corporations of America. The President has become “The Chairman.” We had an idea that seemed funny at the time and now is much more meaningful in that we gave this semi-dictatorial Chairman a hair combover. It bears a strong resemblance to a certain prominent politician. We thought of it as a joke and never dreamed that we would have a president with a combover. Some of the ideas expressed in Trump’s political campaign are here, such as benefits for the wealthy and the opposition to this hierarchy proving ineffectual. One of the beauties of science fiction is you can make social comments that you might have difficulty expressing in a realistic film.
Paste: The idea of a Death Race doesn’t seem that subversive or far-fetched anymore.
Corman: That is the difference between the original and Death Race 2050. What was so subversive in the first one now seems a little closer to an actual possibility.
Paste: How have you seen the role of producer change? Is it more difficult than ever to get funding?
Corman: It’s more difficult to get funding for a medium or lower budget picture. With these 100 and 200 million dollar pictures, the studios are often in partnership with some other entity and are willing to green-light these massive pictures very easily. A lower budget, independent picture or particularly something like Death Race, which presents certain concepts that might be controversial, is much more difficult to get funding.
Paste: Did your nice guy demeanor come from upbringing, or was it a reaction to assholes you found in the business?
Corman: I think it’s just built in. I’m not certain how much of a nice guy I was, but so many people have stories about all the terrible things in their childhood, from divorce to outright horror stories. I just grew up in a middle class family. It was just my brother and me, our parents treated us nicely, and we had no particular problems in school or at home. We reflect a certain kind of upbringing that continues to this day. At the same time, you have to be fairly tough in this business, particularly when it comes to financing and distribution.