Following his Sigmund Freud/Carl Jung psychological drama A Dangerous Method (starring Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel), David Cronenberg will get deep into the post-modern with an adaptation of Don DeLillo‘s Cosmopolis, and Colin Farrell and Marion Cotillard are along for the ride.

Here’s the synopsis of the novel:

“DeLillo skates through a day in the life of a brilliant and precocious New Economy billionaire in this monotone 13th novel, a study in big money and affectlessness. As one character remarks, 28-year-old Eric Packer “wants to be one civilization ahead of this one.” But on an April day in the year 2000, Eric’s fortune and life fall apart. The story tracks him as he traverses Manhattan in his stretch limo. His goal: a haircut at Anthony’s, his father’s old barber.” [Amazon]

Sounds deceivingly simple, but then all DeLillo plots do. Reading it is a whole different kind of adventure, i.e. White Noise, Underworld.

Farrell will play Parker, Cotillard his wife. It feels like a return to Farrell’s Stu Shepard in Phone Booth, or Danny Witwer in Minority Report. He played slimy corporate well then and he’ll play it well again.

The film will cost $20.5 million, courtesy Portuguese producer Paulo Branco’s Alfama Films and Cronenberg’s Toronto-based Antenna, in association with Kinology. Shooting will take place from March to May in Toronto and New York [Variety]. Presumably those months signify next year, which would make sense considering the early stages of A Dangerous Method, which will come first.

Are you excited to see the perverse Cronenberg adapt a novel by the meta DeLillo?

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