David Cronenberg returned to filmmaking after an eight-year hiatus with “Crimes Of The Future” last year. And the body horror maestro, now 80, hasn’t lost a step, with critics loving the film at its world premiere at Cannes. Now the director gears up for his next project. Deadline reports that Cronenberg is ready to start shooting “The Shrouds,” his next feature, this May, and he has his central cast lined up for the movie, too (but with a new leading lady).
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Vincent Cassel, who joined “The Shrouds” last summer, leads the cast, with Guy Pearce as a co-star. Meanwhile, Diane Kruger replaces Léa Seydoux as the film’s female lead. Seydoux, who starred in “Crime Of The Future,” was announced to star at the same time as Cassel but had to drop out of the project. It’s the first time Kruger or Pearce work with Cronenberg, but the third time for Cassel: he stars in Cronenberg’s 2007 Russian gangster film “Easter Promises” and has a small role as deviant psychiatrist Otto Gross in “A Dangerous Method,” from 2011.
But what’s “The Shrouds” about? The upcoming film sees Cassel as Karsh, an innovative business and grieving widower who creates a cemetery device that allows family members to watch their loved ones decompose in real time. But as Karsh’s new invention hits the international mainstream, someone desecrates several graves in his cemetery, including his wife’s. Who’s behind these attacks, and what will they do to Karsh’s business and the memories he holds of his late spouse?
SBS International will have “The Shrouds” available on the Cannes market this May. SBS head Saïd Ben Saïd and Martin Katz of Prospero Pictures co-produce Cronenberg’s latest, with the duo previously producing the director’s 2014 film “Maps To The Stars.” One hope “The Shrouds” fares better at the domestic box office than “Crimes Of The Future,” which managed only $2.4 million in its run. But at this point in his career, Cronenberg’s work runs on merit and reputation, not commercial success.
Cassel recently starred in the Apple TV+ series “Liaison,” and has “The Three Musketeers” up next. As for Kruger, her most intriguing upcoming project is Fatih Akin‘s Marlene Dietrich biopic. Meanwhile, Pearce, who had “The Infernal Machine” and “Memory” as films last year, has “The Convert” upcoming. That film sees him as a British preacher in an 1830s settlement on New Zealand thrust into a bloody war against Maori tribes. NZ filmmaker Lee Tamahori directs that flick.
Expect Cronenberg, Saïd, and Katz to eye a Cannes premiere for “The Shrouds” next year.