03/05/2021 - The arthouse and horror legend, long thought to have retired, returns for his first feature in eight years, a Greece-set sci-fi noir starring Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart

Director David Cronenberg, actor Viggo Mortensen and actresses Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart

UPDATE (3 May 2021): A full cast has been announced for the film, including Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux (lining up yet another project with highly-regarded auteur, as she's soon to be seen in The French Dispatch [+see also:
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Long live the old flesh! Canadian master David Cronenberg is gearing up to shoot his long-awaited 22nd feature, with the working title Crimes of the Future [+see also:
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Announced initially as a co-production between Canada and Greece (although other participating countries could soon be confirmed), the film will shoot mainly around Athens from August to early September 2021, taking in locations such as the Iris Film Theatre, the Arcade of Anatolia and the harbour of Piraeus in the Attica region. Greece has a co-production treaty with Canada, and offers cash rebate and tax relief to international productions.

The original 1970 film followed the director of a dermatological clinic named Adrian Tripod, searching for his mad scientific mentor, Antoine Rouge. Rouge disappeared following the outbreak of a plague resulting from cosmetic products, which grew to claim the lives of all adult women. The script for the new film was written “a long time ago,” as Mortensen stated in an interview, “now he’s refined it and wants to shoot it.”

Mortensen went on to say, “He’s going maybe a little bit back to his origins. […] 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.”

Argonauts Productions will be the Greek co-producer and production service company for the shoot. Robert Lantos, for Canada’s Serendipity Point, will also produce, and said, “Athens is the perfect setting for Crimes Of The Future, as it is bespoke tailoring for David Cronenberg’s unique vision of a future which intermingles with the past.”

Cronenberg himself has taken a long career pause since his last feature, 2014’s Maps to the Stars [+see also:
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