The rest of the year will mark a busy period for David Cronenberg, as he not only promotes the Cannes premiere and release of his next film, but an upcoming novel as well. Following trailers and more, today we have a batch of new stills from the former, which features Robert Pattinson, Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack in the Hollywood-set meta-narrative.
Perhaps more intriguing is the unveiling of his fall-bound book, Consumed, which tells “the story of two journalists whose entanglement in a French philosopher’s death becomes a surreal journey into global conspiracy.” The trailer for the book has now dropped, which is NSFW thanks to nudity and is about as unsettling as one might expect from the director. One can pre-order the novel on Amazon ahead of a September release, and check out the synopsis, NSFW trailer below, as well as more Maps to the Stars stills.
Update: See even more new stills below.
Stylish and camera-obsessed, Naomi and Nathan thrive on the yellow journalism of the social-media age. They are lovers and competitors—nomadic freelancers in pursuit of sensation and depravity, encountering each other only in airport hotels and browser windows.
Naomi finds herself drawn to the headlines surrounding Celestine and Aristide Arosteguy, Marxist philosophers and sexual libertines. Celestine has been found dead and mutilated in her Paris apartment. Aristide has disappeared. Police suspect him of killing her and consuming parts of her body. With the help of an eccentric graduate student named Herve Blomqvist, Naomi sets off in pursuit of Aristide. As she delves deeper into Celestine and Aristide’s lives, disturbing details emerge about their sex life—which included trysts with Herve and others. Can Naomi trust Herve to help her?
Nathan, meanwhile, is in Budapest photographing the controversial work of an unlicensed surgeon named Zoltán Molnar, once sought by Interpol for organ trafficking. After sleeping with one of Molnar’s patients, Nathan contracts a rare STD called Roiphe’s. Nathan then travels to Toronto, determined to meet the man who discovered the syndrome. Dr. Barry Roiphe, Nathan learns, now studies his own adult daughter, whose bizarre behavior masks a devastating secret.
These parallel narratives become entwined in a gripping, dreamlike plot that involves geopolitics, 3-D printing, North Korea, the Cannes Film Festival, cancer, and, in an incredible number of varieties, sex. “Consumed” is an exuberant, provocative debut novel from one of the world’s leading film directors.
What do you think of Cronenberg’s book? Are you looking forward to Maps to the Stars?