David Cronenberg is known as one of the masters of body horror films, and the director is in a unique position to be one of three Cronenbergs who are partaking in this world. Indeed, his children are now filmmaking peers who specialize in the wretched and strange. Brandon Cronenberg has made splashes with his films Possessor and Infinity Pool. Now, Caitlin Cronenberg has stepped up with her directorial debut, Humane. David’s newest project, The Shrouds, is set to premiere at Cannes and The Film Stage has revealed previously unreleased images from the film as well as its new poster.
Vincent Cassel (who worked with Cronenberg on Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method) takes on the role of Karsh, an innovative businessman and grieving widower, who 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.
He’s joined in the cast of The Shrouds by Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), Guy Pearce (Memento), and Sandrine Holt (American Gigolo). Holt plays “a mysterious woman, the wife of a billionaire, who contacts Cassel’s Karsh about a strange project involving her husband”. Cronenberg has said that The Shrouds is “a very personal project for me. People who know me will know parts of it are autobiographical.“
The Shrouds started filming in Toronto last May and wrapped in June. Saïd Ben Saïd of SBS Productions and Martin Katz of Prospero Pictures, both of whom worked with Cronenberg on Crimes of the Future, are producing. Given that Crimes of the Future only made $4.5 million at the global box office, it’s good to see that they’re still sticking with Cronenberg. Distribution is being handled by SBS International.