Originally teased by Viggo Mortensen earlier this year, David Cronenberg is set to return to his roots with his next movie, with Mortensen (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) on board to reunite with Cronenberg and lead the cast. This will be Cronenberg’s first feature since 2014’s Maps to the Stars, and it’s reportedly now titled Crimes of the Future.
According to a report shared by Indiewire this week, Cronenberg will be filming Crimes of the Future in Greece this summer. The website also notes, “Cronenberg fans might recognize the title, as the writer-director made a film of the same name in 1970 about a dermatological clinic director searching for his mentor in the midst of a plague that has killed off women.”
This mostly lines up with Mortensen’s comments from earlier this year. The actor had told GQ, “It’s something he wrote a long time ago, and he never got it made. Now he’s refined it, and he wants to shoot it. Hopefully, it’ll be this summer we’ll be filming. I would say, without giving the story away, he’s going maybe a little bit back to his origins.”
When GQ asked if “back to his origins” means a return to “body-horror type stuff,” Mortensen had replied: “Yeah, it’s very interesting. It’s almost like a strange film noir story.”
“It’s disturbing and it’s good, I think. But since his origins, he’s obviously developed in terms of technique and self-assurance as a director,” the actor added.
Cronenberg of course made a name for himself in the horror world with classics including Shivers, Rabid, The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome, The Dead Zone and The Fly (1986).