Anytime David Cronenberg makes a film, it’s an event. The Canadian and horror icon never fails to, at the very least, engage the mind. With his next film, The Shrouds, he’s facing death and tech. Once upon a time, Netflix expressed interest in the original Cronenberg tale, but at The Shrouds‘ Cannes Film Festival premiere, Cronenberg recounted the experience.
The filmmaker expressed no ill-will toward the streaming giant for passing. At a press conference, he shared the story with a good sense of humor about it. “I flew to LA and pitched The Shrouds to three executives,” Cronenberg said. “They were intrigued enough to finance the writing of the first episode, which they called ‘the prototype,’ for whatever reason. They liked that enough to give a green-light to a second episode, which I wrote, and then they said they didn’t want to go any further with it. I asked them why. This was a very Hollywood thing to say — I was hoping Netflix would not be Hollywood, but they really are — and they said, ‘It’s not what we fell in love with in the room.’ Well, in the room, I told you very precisely what I was intending, but you are dependent on their imagination when you do a pitch. Later, I felt what they fell in love with was me, which was very flattering, but not with my script.”
At the very least, Netflix helped Cronenberg not only get paid, but get the ball rolling on a new story. Then again, a movie from Cronenberg about the dangers and joys of technology on the top-dog streaming service sounds like a fun combo on paper. Just imagine a Netflix original from David Cronenberg shooting to no. 1 on opening day. (Netflix clearly did not imagine it.)
The Shrouds proved polarizing with critics at Cannes. In other words, the sky is blue and Cronenberg made another Cronenberg film. We can’t wait.
The Shrouds opens this fall internationally.
