Legendary The Fly and Dead Ringers director David Cronenberg's Crimes of the Future released in 2022, eight years after his previous film, Maps to the Stars. Thankfully, we're not going to have to wait quite as long for the body horror maestro's next project.
Titled The Shrouds, the movie stars Vincent Cassel (Irreversible, Eastern Promises), Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), Guy Pearce (Memento) and Sandrine Holt (Fear the Walking Dead), and is set for its world premiere later this month at the Cannes Film Festival.
Plot details had been pretty vague up until now, but the following synopsis gives us a much better idea of what to expect.
"Karsh, an innovative businessman and grieving widower, builds a novel device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud. This burial tool installed at his own state-of-the-art – though controversial cemetery allows him and his clients to watch their specific departed loved one decompose in real time.
Karsh’s revolutionary business is on the verge of breaking into the international mainstream when several graves within his cemetery are vandalized and nearly destroyed, including that of his wife. While he struggles to uncover a clear motive for the attack, the mystery of who wrought this havoc, and why, drive him to reevaluate his business, marriage and fidelity to his late wife’s memory, as well as push him to new beginnings."
Holt will play "a mysterious woman, the wife of a billionaire, who contacts Cassel’s Karsh about a strange project involving her husband.”
It certainly sounds... like a David Cronenberg movie!
U.S. distribution has yet to be confirmed, but French distributor Pyramide Films will release The Shrouds on September 25, 2024. Have a look at the first poster and some new promo images below.
The Shrouds will see the return of several Cronenberg collaborators, including cinematographer Douglas Koch, editor Christopher Donaldson, and composer Howard Shore.
Crimes of the Future proved to be highly divisive (as much of Cronenberg's work often does), so expect similar reactions from Cannes when The Shrouds screens.
The 77th annual Cannes Film Festival will take place from 14 to 25 May. Greta Gerwig will serve as jury president for the main competition, while actress Camille Cottin will host the opening and closing ceremonies.