David Cronenberg’s particular brand of body horror appears to be back in fashion of late – the recent likes of “Moon” and “District 9,” with their bloody teeth and flaky fingernails, have nodded to the master, and now it looks like the Canadian director is going back to the well, with the surprising news that he will write, and potentially direct, a remake of his own 1986 classic “The Fly,” itself a remake of the 1958 Vincent Price-starrer (before the remake patrol get up in arms…)
Fox, the same studio that’s behind Ridley Scott’s return to the “Alien” franchise, appears to have lured Cronenberg back after his adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s “The Matarese Circle” fell through. Worryingly, the report says that “The project would represent a chance for Cronenberg to return to a film that helped establish his career, but to do so in the effects age, using techniques that weren’t possible nearly a quarter-century ago”, which seems like a particularly Fox reason to remake a movie, and doesn’t bode well for the project.
But then, “The Fly” is a real passion project for the director – body horror has haunted his work from “Videodrome” to “eXistenZ,” and he returned to the story last year in an operatic version composed by regular collaborator Howard Shore (which, unfortunately, got pretty terrible reviews), so it may come from a genuine desire to revisit the subject matter for a new take. Cronenberg’s been on a strong enough run in the last few years that we’re willing to cut him some slack on this one, and we’d rather he was doing it than some goateed music video director. There’s no news on whether it’ll come before or after his adaptation of Don De Lillo’s “Cosmopolis,” a project we’re truly excited about.