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.[1] The film, subtitled The Absurd Mystery of the Strange Forces of Existence,[2] was to make use of several themes that have since become recurring elements in David Lynch's works—a write-up for The A.V.[10] 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.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".[15] 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.Working with drummer Stephen Hodges and bassist Don Falzone, Alvin said they "came up with something that sounded like a cross between Muddy Waters, Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis and The Cramps.[19] Having been temporarily unable to begin production on the film for some time because De Laurentiis owned the rights,[20] Lynch stopped actively pursuing Ronnie Rocket as a viable project in the early 1990s.[24] Speaking of the difficulty in attracting financing for the film, Dexter Fletcher said "I should imagine that the big money heads at whatever studio it was couldn't get their brains round it at all.
Dexter Fletcher
(pictured in 2014
) considered
Ronnie Rocket
too abstruse for potential financiers.