dave depraved cronenberg

Started by Cecil, February 10, 2003, 07:23:04 PM

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Media Rights Capital Acquires Black Hole Thriller For David Cronenberg
via Deadline

Media Rights Capital has made a pre-emptive acquisition of the Jonathan Lethem novel As She Climbed Across the Table, in a package that has David Cronenberg directing, Bruce Wagner writing and Film Rites' Steve Zaillian and Garrett Basch producing. Lethem is the author of Motherless Brooklyn.

The novel is a love triangle among an academic, his particle-physicist girlfriend, and the black hole that comes as the result of her lab experiments to replicate the origins of the universe. The physicist dumps her boyfriend to spend all her time with the black hole -- which she calls Lack -- and the university professor will do anything to win her back, even confronting his rival for her affections and risking a trip down a cosmic rabbit hole. The premise has comedic and thriller elements, and Film Rites brought it first to Cronenberg, who has covered dangerous and creepy obsessions in films ranging from The Fly to Crash and Dead Ringers. The film reteams Cronenberg with Wagner. Cronenberg was exec producer on Wagner's adaptation of his own novel, I'm Losing You.

Media Rights Capital would not disclose whether it will mount the movie in its financing and output deal with Universal, or broker a deal to a studio before production begins. MRC is currently in production on the Neill Blomkamp-directed Elysium, the futuristic thriller that stars Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Alice Braga and Sharlto Copley. Cronenberg is about to unveil his latest film, A Dangerous Method, on the festival circuit with Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender starring. He just wrapped the Robert Pattinson-starrer Cosmopolis, based on the Don DeLillo novel. Cronenberg is repped by WME and Sentient Entertainment, Wagner by ICM.


MacGuffin

David Cronenberg Teaming With MRC to Adapt 'Knifeman' for TV (Exclusive)
The "History of Violence" Director will direct the pilot and serve as an EP on the Media Rights Capital drama project, which will be shopped to buyers.
Source: THR

Director David Cronenberg is heading to the small screen.

The History of Violence helmer is teaming with Media Rights Capital for his first foray into television. He will direct the pilot as well as serve as an executive producer on Knifeman, based on biography by Wendy Moore.

The drama, which has yet to be shopped to buyers, focuses on the trials and triumphs of a radical, self-educated surgeon, delivering a visceral portrait of the extraordinary and unorthodox lengths he will go to uncover the secrets of the human body. Cronenberg will be a partner on the project, much as David Fincher is on MRC's House of Cards, set to debut on Netflix this year.

Knifeman is being written by Emmy-nominated writer-producer Rolin Jones (Friday Night Lights, Weeds, Smash) with the story by Jones and Ron Fitzgerald (Friday Night Lights). The MRC project will count Cronenberg and Jones, along with the Stars Road team of Sam Raimi, Josh Donen and Robert Zotnowski as executive producers. Sentient's Renee Tab is attached as a co-executive producer as well. The team's next step is casting a lead.

Cronenberg, who recently wrapped filing on Cosmopolis, based on the Don De Lillo novel and starring Robert Pattinson, Paul Giamatti and Juliette Binoche, is repped by WME, Sentient Entertainment and Behr & Abramson. His credits include such projects as Eastern Promises, M. Butterfly and A Dangerous Method.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

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90-minute audio recording of a conversation about his career with Museum of the Moving Image chief curator David Schwartz from 1992

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Cosmopolis Clip



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Never-Before-Seen Concept Art from David Cronenberg's Total Recall!
by Ron Miller
via io9

My wife and I both worked for nearly a year on the David Cronenberg version of Total Recall. At Dino DiLaurentiis' studio outside Rome, we worked under the direction of the brilliant production designer, Pierluigi Basile. I produced scores of drawings and paintings while Judith created models of sets and spacecraft, mostly of paper and balsa wood.

Cronenberg's Total Recall would certainly have been a very different movie than the one ultimately produced. So different, in fact, was the story that Cronenberg evolved that it was proposed at one time that his version be filmed as a sequel! What did eventually make the screen was much closer to what screenwriter Ron Shusett had originally imagined... less like the Philip K. Dick story, "I Can Remember It For You Wholesale", that the screenplay was based on — and which was what Cronenberg wanted to do — and more like an over-the-top adventure.

What eventually became Pyramid Mountain in the Verhoeven version was originally a prehistoric Martian sphinx excavated from the Martian desert, and a good deal more screen time was have been allotted to Kuato, including an elaborate dream sequence where he morphed first into the sphinx and then into a kind of phosphorescent vagina. Cronenberg had some very Cronenberg touches, such as agents with guns hidden within their bodies, but absolutely my favorite idea of all those we came up with was to have camels imported from earth to haul freight across the Martian deserts. This would, of course, have been after significant terraforming had already been done...but not so much that the camels didn't have to wear respirators!

I've put together a small collection of this preproduction art, along with a few of Judith's models, to illustrate a little of what Total Recall might have been...







More here

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David Cronenberg Talks The Bizarre Love In 'Cosmopolis' Between Paul Giamatti & Robert Pattinson; Discusses The Film's Timely Social Relevance & More
via The Playlist

Potential spoliers

An adaptation of Don DeLillo's titular and typically provocative novel, "Cosmopolis," is the first feature-length effort filmmaker David Cronenberg wrote himself since 1999's "eXistenZ." Cronenberg penned the screenplay in six days, and literally transcribed DeLillo's dialogue word for word in many scenes. Featuring an unlikely star in the lead, "Twilight" hearthrob Robert Pattinson, and set in the not-too-distant-future of New York, "Cosmopolis" centers on a 28-year-old billionaire and uncontested Wall Street king, Eric Packer. A financial golden boy living the dream, yet bored with his effortless existence, Parker's day takes a turn for the worse when a dark shadow is cast over the firmament of the Wall Street galaxy. As his empire potentially crumbles, an eruption of wild activity unfolds in the city's streets and Packer's paranoia intensifies during the course of his 24-hour odyssey and leads him to cross paths with cast of characters that threaten to destroy his world.

Also featuring Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton, Juliette Binoche, Sarah Gadon, Jay Baruchel and Kevin Durand, much of "Cosmopolis" takes place within the single setting of the stretch limousine that Pattinson's Parker rides in, making for a claustrophobic experience where Cronenberg explores society's anxieties, phobias, and the idea of letting repressed impulses and paranoia run wild. "There's a lot of dialogue that's very difficult and it's kind of extreme in its stucture, so it's not an easy sell," Cronenberg said of the making of the picture. Due in U.S. theaters later this summer, Playlist contributor Aaron Hillis had a quick chat with the director in Cannes this past weekend discussing the film's eerie financial prophecies, its perfectly-timed coincidence with the Occupy Wall Street themes and the concept of monetary abstractions.

You've said that the novel proved prophetic, but economies do wax and wane so there must be some room for coincidence. What is it about this 2003 book that resonates with you as both a cinematic and contemporary text?

"Cosmopolis" was never meant to be analysis of world economics situation, you know? That is almost gravy. The fact that the world suddenly seems to be caught up with Don DeLillo's book and it's as though we were making a documentary instead of a fiction film. Things were happening: Occupy Wall Street, the pie in the face of Rupert Murdoch. We had shot scenes with Rob [Pattinson] that were so similar to that it was quite bizarre. But no, it didn't need that contemporary reality to make it interesting to me because it was the characters, it was the philosophy, it was the structure of the novel itself that was really interesting to me. And I thought it would be...you know, as an artist you're always looking for universal realitys, truths, not absolute truths, but something that has some universal meaning and yet, you have to deal with particular characters, particular moments in time and so on. And so you need the particular to be universal and I thought that was very strong in Don's novel and as I said, the world could have been peachy keen economically and I still think the book would have been resonant.

The novel has a device referring back to the stream-of-consciousness confessions of Benno Levin, played by Paul Giamatti as one of the many people out to get Eric Parker. As one of the most complicated characters in the story, what does Benno Levin represent to you?

Well, I don't think in terms of symbols and schematics. I think of Benno as a real person. I have to approach my characters as real people and with my actors we, as I've often said, you cannot say to an actor, "You will portray this abstract concept." I can't say to Rob Pattinson, "You are the symbol of capitalism." Because an actor doesn't know that. How do you act that? What do you do with that information? It doesn't help you. You have to say, "You're a character who has this past, who has this barbershop he goes to, who has this desire, who has this job." That's how an actor works and that's actually how I work. So I can't say, "Benno represents this or that." I can say Benno is a character who has a bizarre love for the Rob Pattinson character. He's in love with him. But he's also repelled by him and is also intimidated by him, to the extent that he actually must connect with him. Just the way some crazed fan has to connect with some celebrity -- that bizarre distant emotional connection. And that's the way I deal with it, so in essence, I can't answer your question the way you asked it.

You've said the film is not a treatise, and you don't like to talk in abstractions, but the great tragic comedy of the movie is that the rich and the poor are equally clueless and helpless...

Well, you know, we just talked about a Rothko that sold for $71 million dollars. Talk about abstract expressionism. The money becomes an abstraction at that point and the question that the Juliette Binoche character asks, "What is money? I don't know what money is anymore." I think a lot of people are saying that. When you hear of these absurd sums for these strange objects. What does it mean? Money has become disconnected from any kind of reality. It's almost become philosophy. Money has always been technology, but now it's becoming philosophy as well, it's quite strange.

Do you hope this film you made provokes a pragmatic conversation that can be had from some of the ideas and themes presented in it?

Oh, I think so. We're having one right now. That's what you want a movie to be, you want it to be juicy. You want it to be provocative in the sense of provoking questions, concepts and ideas. So at that point, yes I think analysis and being schematic is interesting. It's after the fact. I just have to say that's not the way we create the movie, but after the fact, yes, art does that. It should stimulate conversation, just the same way a Rothko or a Pollock painting will provoke those kinds of conversations, even though they don't spring like that intuitively from the artist. The fact that the movie turns out to be bizarrely timing is coincidental, but useful in a pragmatic way.

Here at Cannes, your son Brandon presented "Antiviral," a very accomplished directorial debut, which journalists regularly put in the context of your early mutant creations. In this sense, is it a blessing or a curse having you as a father?

I'm such a nice and good father, it must be a blessing [laughs]. But believe me, we are very close, Brandon and I, we have a wonderful relationship and always have. So that's unquestionable, we know that. Obviously, for a while, it kept him away from film. People were so sure that he would want to become a director, he denied that to himself. He was always interested in art, he was always a good writer and quite a good painter as well. That stalled him I suppose. The fact that I was a well-known director did stall him, but then once he realized that he should do what he wants and not worry about other people because what they actually think is irrelevant, then he had the background that other people don't have that opened up -- something that a lot of kids in Hollywood have, but not too many kids in Toronto have -- which is to say, a childhood of being on a film set, seeing how films work in a practical way, and in fact, working on a film. He worked on "Existenz" in the special effects department. So suddenly having that at his finger tips and he wasn't a novice in the way that someone fresh out of film school might be.

What have you enjoyed seeing at Cannes this year?

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much, but it's wonderful for me to see a film by Bernardo Bertolluci, which I actually thought was a terrific film that should have been in competition, but it wasn't. Maybe it was his choice, I don't know. I really loved it and it's been ten years since he's made a film, he's in a wheel chair, he's had physical problems and so on. It's wonderful to see that he's still the great filmmaker that he always was. And also it's wonderful to see a film by Alain Renais because I was watching his films in 1959 and that he's still going at the age of 90 is very encouraging to say the least, that he's still doing it and still being very extreme and controversial in his filmmaking, that's wonderful too. But I don't get as much chance at a festival to see films, ironically, because I'm promoting my own and that's really been the case here.

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Mortensen and Cassel Eye Sequel to Cronenberg's Eastern Promises
via Vulture

Vulture hears exclusively that Vincent Cassel is now negotiating to join Viggo Mortensen in a sequel to David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. We hear the sequel, to be directed by Cronenberg and written by Steven Knight (who also wrote the original), picks up where the 2007 film left off — with the incompetent underboss Kirill (Cassel) thinking that he and his henchman driver Nikolai (Mortensen) really have inherited the throne from his crime-lord father, without knowing that Nikolai is actually a clandestine agent working undercover in Russia's federal security service.

We're told Mortensen will first star in Hossein Amini's adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel The Two Faces of January this fall but will then pivot to the Eastern Promises sequel at the start of next year. News of a possible Promises sequel first surfaced in March of 2010.

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Tim Roth To Star In MRC's 'Knifeman' Series From David Cronenberg And Rolin Jones
via Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee Tim Roth has signed on to star in Media Rights Capital's TV series project Knifeman. David Cronenberg is set to direct the pilot and executive produce the series, which centers on John Tattersall (Roth), a radical, self-educated surgeon who will go to unorthodox lengths to uncover the secrets of the human body. The straight-to-series project, which is expected to be taken out to networks shortly, was written by Emmy-nominated writer-producer Rolin Jones (Boardwalk Empire, Friday Night Lights, Weeds) from a story by Jones and Ron Fitzgerald (Friday Night Lights, Weeds). Jones and Fitzgerald serve as Executive Producers with Cronenberg. Sam Raimi, Josh Donen and Robert Zotnowski of Stars Road are also Executive Producers, with Sentient's Renee Tab serving as Co-Executive Producer.

This marks British actor Roth's second U.S.series gig following his starring turn on the Fox drama Lie To Me. For the past year, he was under a deal at 20th Century Fox, which produced Lie To Me. Out of that pact, which just expired, came out a drama project, which Roth and former Lie To Me co-showrunner Alexander Cary recently sold to FX. The untitled project, now in development, was created by the two as a potential starring vehicle for Roth, with 20th TV's cable division Fox21 producing. The project is still moving forward, with Roth, repped by CAA and attorney Geoff Oblath, and Cary currently writing the script. Given Roth's commitment to Knifeman, if the FX project goes to pilot, it will be determined who will star, with Roth and Cary remaining executive producers.

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Exclusive: Focus Features Pull The Plug On David Cronenberg's 'Eastern Promises 2'
via The Playlist

or a director as fearsomely original as David Cronenberg, he's hasn't necessarily shied away from sequels, they just haven't come to fruition. He penned a remake/reboot of "The Fly" for 20th Century Fox, although the studio scrapped it, and more recently, it looked like he was actually going to make the long-talked about "Eastern Promises 2," a sequel to his 2006 gangster picture, with original writer Steven Knight again penning a script, and Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel both set to return.

But the emphasis should be put on the past tense here, because we just spoke to Cronenberg (and his star Robert Pattinson) in New York as they did the press rounds for "Cosmopolis," and despite news of the follow-up looking promising, it seems that the sequel is no longer going to happen. When we asked Cronenberg what he had coming up next, the filmmaker said bluntly, "It was supposed to be 'Eastern Promises 2.' But that's dead."

And it looks like it's not come from the director or casts' end, but instead a studio reluctant to give the greenlight. "We were supposed to start shooting 'Eastern Promises 2' in October," Croneberg said, still sounding frustrated and in disbelief. "[But] It's done... If you don't like it talk to James Schamus at Focus. It was his decision."

The original wasn't exactly a blockbuster, taking $17 million domestically and a little over $50 million internationally, but presumably Focus at one point thought that the numbers would have worked, so the about face is a little curious, especially as it sounds like the decision was pretty last minute considering the fall shoot. As such, the director doesn't yet have anything lined up, and is instead focusing on finishing a novel that he's writing that is, according to him, "two years late." Stay tuned for more from our interview with Cronenberg and Pattinson in the next few days, and you'll be able to see their collaboration in theaters this Friday, August 17th.

©brad

Cronenberg doesn't have kind words for Dark Knight Rises.

"It's still Batman running around in a stupid cape," Cronenberg tells Next Movie. "I just don't think it's elevated. Christopher Nolan's best movie is Memento, and that is an interesting movie. I don't think his Batman movies are half as interesting though they're 20 million times the expense ... A superhero movie, by definition, you know, it's comic book. It's for kids. It's adolescent in its core. That has always been its appeal, and I think people who are saying Dark Knight Rises is 'supreme cinema art,' I don't think they know what the fuck they're talking about."

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David Cronenberg on Andy Warhol










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David Cronenberg To Narrate Organ Trade Documentary
via Deadline

Cosmopolis director David Cronenberg has signed on to voice Tales From The Organ Trade. The documentary is produced by Toronto's Associated Producers in association with HBO, Global TV and Canal D. Tales From The Organ Trade is scheduled to be broadcast on HBO next year. Directed by Ric Esther Bienstock, the investigative documentary tracks the global market in the illegal sales of human body parts.

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Isabelle Huppert, Denis Lavant & David Cronenberg To Star In Luca Guadagnino's Adaptation Of Don DeLillo's 'The Body Artist'
via The Playlist

Two of the most-talked about films of last year were united by one thing; both David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis" and Leos Carax's "Holy Motors" were set over a single day, and starred a protagonist being driven around a city in a limousine. But what if key participants in both were united in one single project? Surely limo-loving, arthouse-inclined movie fans would be dancing in the street if that were to be the case?

Well, get your dancing shoes on, because we're about to see a collaboration that's basically the Cannes Film Festival version of the Traveling Wilburys. According to Variety, "Cosmopolis" author Don DeLillo's novel "The Body Artist" is heading to the big screen (slightly retitled "Body Art"), with "I Am Love" helmer Luca Guadagnino writing and directing, and "Cosmopolis" producer Paolo Branco shepherding it. And a diverse and fascinating cast has been assembled, with the legendary Isabelle Huppert in the lead role, alongside "Holy Motors" lead Denis Lavant and, yes, "Cosmopolis" director David Cronenberg in a rare acting appearance.

DeLillo's 2001 novel follows performance artist Lauren Hartke (Huppert) grieving after the suicide of her film director husband (Cronenberg, perhaps?), who becomes increasingly alienated until she discovers a mysterious man (Lavant?) in her house. Guadagnino firmly arrived on the international scene with "I Am Love" a few years back, but has yet to follow it up, though he's had a number of projects on his slate, including "A Bigger Splash," a remake of the 1969 film "La Piscine," and an adaptation of James Ellroy's "The Big Nowhere." It looks like this will be first, though; the film is being shopped at the Berlin Film Festival, and is hoping to shoot in the summer.

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David Cronenberg talks about the logistics of shooting at night...


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