Back in August, we heard the depressing news that director David Cronenberg was struggling to get the requisite backing for a proposed sequel to his 1986 hit, The Fly. And with his other potential project - a sequel to the 2007 gangster drama Eastern Promises - also falling apart, this most respected independent filmmakers was left without a movie to make.
As commenter Tom Beasley succinctly put it, "If even Cronenberg can't get a risky film made, what hope does anyone have?"
Fortunately, there appears to be a ray of hope on the horizon. Another of Cronenberg's projects, Maps To The Stars, finally appears to have found the financing that has eluded it up to now. A script Cronenberg first attached himself to back in 2006, it's described as an "acerbic" look at fame in Hollywood.
"You could say it's a Hollywood film because the characters are agents, actors and managers, but it is not a satire like The Player," Cronenberg told Variety in 2009."Hollywood is a world that is seductive and repellent at the same time, and it is the combination of the two that makes it so potent."
With backing for the project finally in place, Maps To The Stars will begin shooting, it's said, next May. Previous Cronenberg collaborators Viggo Mortensen and Robert Pattinson are thought to be involved, and trade websites have suggested that Rachel Weisz may also be 'circling' the project, which makes the actress sound like some sort of celebrity pterodactyl.
At any rate, it's a relief to learn that Cronenberg's finally getting the rusty wheels moving on one of his movies. We'd have been fascinated to see what he would have done with a belated Fly sequel, but we've every faith that Maps To The Stars will be another incisive movie from one of the sharpest filmmakers currently working.
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