28 Feb 07
There's a lot going on under the Galaxie's hood
The quiet boozer suddenly seems a lot quieter. Are we having a Penrith Tea Rooms moment? Is the proprietor about to have us ejected?
Bruce doesn't miss a beat. 'I got this call out of the blue. "Johnny's on the line." Johnny? "Yeah, Johnny Depp." Where is he? "Oh, he's in the Caribbean on his boat."
The Rum Diary, due to start shooting in 2007, will be his first directing job since the 1992 cop thriller Jennifer Eight; his first and, to date, last Hollywood movie. Fraught with battles with interfering studio execs, Jennifer Eight was a traumatic time for Bruce.
His research involved a terrifying Californian road trip in a 60s Mustang convertible, riding shotgun with a real-life psycho cop who once threatened to kill him. And stress levels were so high on set that, at one point he vomited over the dash of his car en route to the studio, 'spewing over the speedometer' from sheer mental and physical exhaustion.
But living in LA did at least give Bruce the opportunity to indulge his taste for classic Americana. He bought a white whale of a convertible - a 7.0-litre 60s Ford Galaxie - and developed a fascination with souped-up muscle cars with 1,000bhp blown Offenhauser race engines as ludicrously powerful as a Bugatti Veyron.
'I've always wanted to have Offenhauser stuck on the back of the Aston. It sounds wonderful doesn't it?' he grins with a hint of mischief, 'A tiny plate, very discreet.'
For a biography of Bruce Robinson, as well as reviews of his films such as Withnail and I and Jennifer 8, check out the Film4 website
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