Personally I think it deserves the Werner Herzon treatment, imagine his narration while cameras go out and follow Ford around, as he tries to discover some form of relevance after his downfall and jail time.
But I don't think you need to be so harsh on Canadian directors... out of all of them, Cronenberg definitely has the most promise for giving it the perversity it needs - but you're right, it'll probably be a low-budget production and it won't hold a candle to some of the best ones, like the Maurice Richard story
But I think the blame is more on the producers and budgets that production companies have, which don't necessarily allow for high-end production. And they're largely driven by a really small Canadian market. It's like architecture - you can only do so much with a low budget!