“It’s my first time in Vegas,” said filmmaker David Cronenberg today at NEON’s CinemaCon presentation, where he was introducing the full trailer for his upcoming Cannes movie, Crimes of the Future.
“I have to thank the the people at NEON for introducing me to Caesars Palace,” he quipped.
“Seems appropriate place to launch our attack on the world with Crimes of the Future,” said Cronenberg. The trailer was exclusive to the room and will be dropped next week.
The pic stars Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, and Viggo Mortensen, is set to premiere at Cannes, with a June theatrical release.
Writer/director Cronenberg appeared on stage with the pic’s producer Robert Lantos, to introduce the film to exhibitors at the annual confab, The two have been working together on several films, beginning with the filmmaker’s Crash, which Lantos said, “was loved by some and equally reviled by others.”
The pic, with the same name as the director’s 1970 movie but not a remake, is set in the not-too-distant-future when humankind has learned to alter its biological makeup, naturally or surgically. Celebrity performance artist Saul Tenser (Mortensen) and his partner Caprice (Seydoux), showcase the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. Timlin (Stewart), an investigator from the National Organ Registry, tracks their movements, revealing a mysterious group whose mission is to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.
The dark trailer kicks off with Seydoux performing what appears to be a sonogram on Mortensen’s abdomen. He later and often appears inside a horizontal pod. There are images of gruesome bodily incisions, and Seydoux sucks blood at one point from a gaping wound. For Cronenberg fans, they’ll find the movie reminscent of his 1980s pic Dead Ringers which was filled with those obsessed by surgery…and sex. “I don’t know what’s happening with my body, that’s why I keep cutting it up,” says Mortensen. The characters are operated on by robotic arms, which look like they’re body parts of the Aliens in Ridley Scott’s sci fi movies. Various images of cutting up of the body, a stitched up face, and Kristen Stewart putting a sucking device to her eye. The movie is going to be a ride.
It’s the first original sci-fi script by Cronenberg since 1999’s eXistenZ.
Crimes of the Future is a Serendipity Point Films and Argonauts co-production. This Canada-Greece co-production is produced in association with Ingenious Media, Coficine and Telefilm Canada, with the support of EKOME.
Neon unveiled a debut teaser for the sci-fi thriller earlier this month.
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