Any day we converse with maverick filmmaker David Cronenberg is a good day, and after running a brief blurb about Fox’s rejection of his abstract script for a sequel to his 1986 masterpiece THE FLY, the man who made psychosexual body revolution an art form told us this:

“There are a ton of producers who would kill to take over my [FLY sequel] script, but Fox paid me to write it, so they own the script 100 percent. They can do what they want with it, including getting somebody else to direct it or rewrite it, or kill it entirely, and I have no say in the matter. Such is the biz.”

Ever-elegant, Cronenberg seems to be taking the blow with courtly grace. FANGORIA hasn’t the manners to match him, however. As previously stated, it comes down to budget. Do the current honchos at the venerable studio have any idea of what Cronenberg is still capable of? Even though he has lately abandoned most of the surface trappings of his horror/sci-fi-fueled past, his films have gotten technically more sophisticated, and he’s always finding new, challenging ways to explore his themes and obsessions. Look at COSMOPOLIS, a film that was defiantly alien, challenging audiences to immerse themselves and accept thrills that were verbal and cerebral as opposed to visceral. His “language” has only gotten sharper.

That said, wouldn’t a revisit to one of his most potent, emotionally relevant films be even more successful? Coupling Cronenberg’s current mastery of the medium with the freakshow gags of his oozing past…might not that be something truly special? Something that leads with a mainstream hook, rewards his core fanbase and perhaps even evolves the genre?

This writer is still holding out hope that Fox will see the light. Failing that, we only pray that the studio doesn’t hire some upstart coked-up music-video “auteur” to remake THE FLY and vomit all over Cronenberg’s simply designed, humanist horror, much in the same way Seth Brundle pukes on donuts. Follow Fango to see how—and if—this evolves.

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