Thankfully, the wait for the next film from David Cronenberg won’t be as long. After the eight-year gap between Maps to the Stars and the forthcoming Crimes of the Future, which premieres shortly at Cannes and arrives in theaters in June, the Canadian master is already prepping his next project.
Variety reports Cronenberg will reteam with Vincent Cassel (Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method) for his new thriller The Shrouds. As scripted by Cronenberg, the film will follow Cassel as Karsh, an “innovative businessman and grieving widower, who builds a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud.”
The description continues, “Karsh’s revolutionary business is on the verge of breaking into the international mainstream when several graves within his cemetery are vandalized and nearly destroyed, including that of his wife. While he struggles to uncover a clear motive for the attack, the mystery of who wrought this havoc, and why, will drive Karsh to reevaluate his business, marriage and fidelity to his late wife’s memory, as well as push him to new beginnings.”
With production kicking off next March and sales happening at Cannes Film Festival, it would be safe to expect a 2024 premiere for the project. For quite some time, Cassel and Cronenberg were attached to a sequel to their 2007 collaboration Eastern Promises, but that fell apart, morphing into the Jason Statham vehicle Small Dark Look. The Shrouds will mark their first collaboration since 2011’s A Dangerous Method.
As for Cronenberg’s new film Crimes of the Future, he recently spoke to Deadline, saying, “There are some very strong scenes. I mean, I’m sure that we will have walkouts within the first five minutes of the movie. I’m sure of that. Some people who have seen the film have said that they think the last 20 minutes will be very hard on people, and that there’ll be a lot of walkouts. Some guy said that he almost had a panic attack. And I say, “Well, that would be OK.” But I’m not convinced that that will be a general reaction. I do expect walkouts in Cannes, and that’s a very special thing. [Laughs] People always walk out, and the seats notoriously clack as you get up, because the seats fold back and hit the back of the seat. So, you hear clack, clack, clack. Whether they’ll be outraged the way they were with Crash, I somehow don’t think so. They might be revulsed to the point that they want to leave, but that’s not the same as being outraged. However, I have no idea really what’s going to happen.”
For more, read our recent interview with the director.