Director David Cronenberg and actor Viggo Mortensen have teamed up for three films: 2005's A History of Violence, 2007's Eastern Promises, and 2011's A Dangerous Method. Now they are teaming up for the fourth time for Cronenberg's new original screenplay, Crimes of the Future.
Crimes of the Future is an original science-fiction film set in a future where humans learning to adapt to their synthetic surroundings is causing them to go into metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. Performance artist Saul Tenser is one of the people who has embraced "Accelerated Evolution Syndrome" and is sprouting new organs in his body. He and his partner Caprice turn the removal of his organs into a theatre spectacle, and the government and a strange sub-culture start taking note.
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Crime of the Future will star Mortensen in the role of Saul Tenser. The film will also be starring Kristen Stewart, Lea Seydoux, and Scott Speedman. Robert Lantos, who has worked with Cronenberg several times before, is producing the film, saying, "To work with David Cronenberg is to embark on a journey exploring terrain where no one has gone before. Each of our collaborations has been an exhilarating adventure and David’s unwavering vision is what real cinema is all about.” Lantos previously collaborated with Cronenberg on 1996's Crash, eXistenZ, and Eastern Promises, the last of which also starred Mortensen. Of course, prior to working with Cronenberg on A History of Violence and Eastern Promises, Mortensen portrayed Aragorn in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
In a statement, Cronenberg said, "I have unfinished business with the future." His last original science fiction script was for eXistenz. Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, and Ian Holm, eXistenz followed a game designer in the future who is targeted by assassins while playing a virtual reality game she created. While very different from Crimes of the Future, they both are conceptually ambitious and set in a dark near-future. eXistenz was generally well-received by critics and scored awards on the film festival circuit, though it did lose a Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film to The Matrix.
Crimes of the Future is set to begin filming in the summer of 2021, beginning production in Athens, Greece. It is backed by Neon and Serendipity Point Films, with Neon distributing in the United States. The film production will include more of Cronenberg's previous collaborators, including production designer Carol Spier and composer Howard Shore.
Mortensen is currently filming Ron Howard's Thirteen Lives in Australia and Thailand. Also starring Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton, the movie is a biographical survival drama chronicling the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue, where a junior football team and their coach were trapped in a cave for eighteen days.
Crime of the Future does not have an announced release date at this time.
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Source: Deadline