According to the New York Post, David Cronenberg, director of Crash, has this to say about the title of Paul Haggis’s new film, Crash:
I thought it was very disrespectful, not just to me, but to J.G. Ballard who wrote the book ‘Crash’ in 1973, which is very famous. In France, they refuse to call [Haggis' movie] ‘Crash’ because they have reverence for that book and for my movie. They call it ‘Collision.’ I think that their argument, that they couldn’t think of another title, is a little bit bogus…I don’t know how I would react if I met Paul Haggis. He’s also Canadian. You know, we’re basically peaceful people, but there was the fur trade, and it got nasty.”
There’s more here, as Jill Hunter Pellettieri reports:
David Cronenberg says he “hates” the decision to name the Haggis-directed movie Crash. ‘Functionally, it’s stupid. Once they’re both on the DVD shelves, there’s going to be confusion.’ He has a point. Both films are dramas and both have posters that depict dark and mysterious scenes with individuals desperately clutching each other (albeit in a very different manner). Is this confusion worth a lawsuit? ‘The last thing a creative person wants is litigation, which is anti-creative,’ Cronenberg says.”