Twenty years ago, skyrocketing gas prices linked to a war in the Middle East spurred questions over how to minimize reliance on fossil fuels. (Sound familiar?) The topic rolled into cinemas with filmmaker Chris Paine’s documentary feature Who Killed the Electric Car?
It was the directorial debut for the environmental activist and proud lessee of the EV1, launched by GM in 1996 as one of the first American mass-produced electric vehicles before being discontinued and recalled by the early 2000s. Friends encouraged Paine to make a film to assess blame; he enlisted Martin Sheen as narrator, with the star donating his salary to charity.
Independence Day producer Dean Devlin joined to honor his late dad’s love for the vehicle and connected the team with friend Mel Gibson, who spoke fondly about his own EV1; other voices included Ed Begley Jr., Ralph Nader and Phyllis Diller.
Sony Pictures Classics acquired the project in November 2005 just before it got into Sundance, and hired Alex Gibney as a consulting producer following his Enron doc’s success. “Sony calls with Alex on the line, and it was a two-hour-long call [where] we all just listened,” producer Jessie Deeter recalls to The Hollywood Reporter.
While the feedback was appreciated, it meant an overhaul to create more of an arc, and an editor was let go in the process. After its rousing Sundance premiere, the movie’s trailer ran ahead of doc hit An Inconvenient Truth, with its high profile leading GM to issue statements attempting to discredit Electric Car.
It hit theaters on June 28, 2006, andTHR’s review praised it as “highly charged [and] undeniably thought-provoking.” The feature collected $1.7 million ($2.9 million today), while Paine earned a WGA Award nom.
The doc ends optimistically with a brief shot of the Tesla Roadster prototype. Indeed, Elon Musk’s company would help spur today’s EV popularity, which was the focus of a 2011 sequel. Now acknowledging that EVs weren’t killed, just delayed until companies could make them profitable, Paine says, “The film asks the right question, but maybe not the complete one.”
This story appeared in the July 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.