Space Truckers

Space Truckers (1996)

Earth's Only Hope

John Canyon is one of the last independent space transport entrepreneurs. Rough times force him to carry suspicious cargo to Earth without questions being asked. During the flight the cargo turns out to be a multitude of unstoppable killer robots.

Date of release
1996-10-04
TMDB
5.4 / 10 (206)
Runtime
1h 35m
Genres
Science Fiction, Adventure, Action
Director
Stuart Gordon

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $25M

Space Truckers is a 1996 science fiction comedy film directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Dennis Hopper, Stephen Dorff, Debi Mazar and Charles Dance. It was filmed at Ardmore Studios, County Wicklow, Ireland.

Production

Stuart Gordon had always wanted to direct a space movie that followed the rules of actually being in space citing how it always bothered him in Star Wars the characters moved the same on planets as they did on spaceships. Gordon collaborated with writer Ted Mann on outlining the story with Mann writing the actual script.

In casting the role of John Canyon, Gordon selected Dennis Hopper for the role as he felt he was capable of conveying a hardscrabble "veteran of life" with Hopper interested in the role as he welcomed the opportunity to play a sympathetic character after a slew of villain roles. Gordon credited Hopper for his professionalism and also cited his role in getting Stephen Dorff cast.

After casting had been secured, the crew arrived in Ireland only to find that the local producer who had promised £7 million had only secured £2 million. Gordon credits producers Peter Newman and Greg Johnson with saving the film as they managed to secure additional funding from several other producers and even the Irish government helped out with the film having been made under Section 35 of the Finance Act of 1987 where the government would put…

While the film was shot in Ireland to exploit tax breaks and local resources, there were no special effects facilities in Ireland to produce the elaborate effects work needed for the production. The 22,000 acre premises of a disused builders' merchant on the Sandyford industrial estate, located outside Dublin, had to be taken over and converted into a vast special effects facility headed by visual effects supervisors Brian Johnson and Paul Gentry…

The film was also involved in a defamation suit between Dennis Hopper and Rip Torn where Hopper publicly stated Torn pulled a knife on him on the set of Easy Rider back in the 1960s. Hopper's representatives tried to settle the defamation suit by floating the offer of a supporting role in Space Truckers, which Torn's representatives refused.

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