The making of the documentary “Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans,” which world premieres in the Cannes Film Fest on Saturday, was a long arduous process that took years to produce.
It is based on archive footage the filmmakers tracked down, alongside interviews with Chad McQueen, and Steve McQueen’s producing partner Bob Relyea, who died in 2013.
Archive material includes interviews with John Sturges, who was supposed to direct “Le Mans” but quit, and an interview with Steve McQueen when he was dying of cancer.
There were numerous boxes of rushes from “Le Mans,” tacked through vital info from a man who had worked at CBS’ Cinema Center Studios, which had provided funding for “Le Mans.”
“McQueen shot something like a million feet of rushes, which we called ‘the holy grail’ during pre-production,” Clarke said. “Many of those we spoke to – including Chad – said that all the material had been incinerated. No one knew where they were. But as a result of continued pursuit, the footage was found under a sound stage in one of the old studios where the film was edited in L.A. More than 400 boxes of film, covered in dust. Each one read ‘Le Mans’ along its spine.”
