David Cronenberg has moved away from the genre in which he made his name. The auteur behind some of the most influential—and terrifying—horror flicks around, like “Scanners” and “The Brood,” left behind his low-budget cult classics more than twenty years ago in favor of more expensive sci-fi and thriller projects. In recent years, he’s plowed into even more mainstream but no less critically respected fare with two Viggo Mortensen films, “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises.” Currently, he’s at work on a Jason Bourne-esque spy thriller called "The Matarese Circle" that’s likely to star Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington.
All of which has led devoted horror fans to wonder if Cronenberg is done making genre pictures forever. Well, rest easy.
“I would return to the genre if I had a project that I really liked,” Cronenberg told MTV News in a recent interview.
He declined to speculate on what exactly would be appealing, but was adamant about what does not hold any interest for him. Namely, remaking any of his earlier films. “I’ve been asked to remake ‘The Brood,’ ‘Scanners,’ ‘Rabid.’ My response is they’ve already sort of been remade by other people in bits and pieces. A lot of the stuff I invented in my early movies has been recycled.”
“Scanners” (1981) was repackaged into several disappointing sequels and “The Dead Zone” (1983) was turned into a USA series starring Anthony Michael Hall. “I’m sure Kubrick was not excited to hear there would be a mini-series of ‘The Shining’ and I wasn’t crazy about hearing there would be a series of ‘The Dead Zone,’” Cronenberg said. “Only because you want your version to be the version. But ultimately if your version was the best and withstands the test of time, then those other ones will fade away.”
Above and beyond the been-there-done-that boringness of remaking his own work, it also seems that Cronenberg feels entirely disconnected—in terms of content and what sells movie tickets—from the contemporary crop of horror movies. “I don’t feel compelled to see ‘Saw’ or ‘Hostel’ just because they’re popular,” he said. “It’s up to them to make me want to watch them, and they didn’t do that.”
The director holds out special scorn for movies about movies, like the “Scream” franchise. “I don’t find that interesting at all,” he said with visceral contempt in his voice. He added, “‘Blair Witch’ was interesting enough to watch because it was rather unusual in many ways.”
All right, you horror buffs with ambitions of working with one of the greats: you know what he likes, you know what he doesn’t like, you know what pisses him off. Now go write the one great script that finally brings Cronenberg back to his fantastically terrifying roots.
Seriously, what sort of horror movie would you like to see Cronenberg make? If you could remake one his films, which would it be?
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