Crimes of the Future<\/b>\u00a0is a co-production by NEON, Serendipity Point Films, and Argonauts Productions. Producers are Steve Solomos and Argonauts\u2019 Panos Papahadzis with Joe Iacono, Thorsten Schumacher, Peter Touche, Christelle Conan, Aida Tannyan, Victor Loewy and Victor Hadida set as executive producers. Bonnie Do and Laura Lanktree have also been set as associate producers.<\/p>\n
SYNOPSIS\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n In a not-so-distant future, humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. Their biological makeup changed, many humans have adapted to life with \u201cAccelerated Evolution Syndrome\u201d thanks partly to specialized equipment that aids in everything from eating to sleeping.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Beloved performance artist Saul Tenser sleeps in a womb-like bed suspended in mid-air. The OrchidBed, as it\u2019s called, comes complete with software to anticipate, and adjust his every bodily need. The machine even detects the growth of new organs, which Saul\u2019s creative partner Caprice can observe and tattoo in his personal operating theatre. Together, Saul and Caprice have turned the discovery and removal of these new body organs into performance art, via sold-out voyeuristic surgical shows using a sarcophagus-like machine where the surgeries take place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These human evolutionary changes do not receive universal positivity. Before long, a new secret government entity is established – the National Organ Registry, led by bureaucrats Wippet and Timlin – to discreetly track new organ growths, with particular enthusiasm for Saul\u2019s artistic anomalies. With increased scrutiny on the syndrome and therefore his art, Saul is forced to consider what would be his most shocking performance of all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and\u00a0<\/span>mutations. With his partner Caprice (L\u00e9a Seydoux), Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), celebrity performance\u00a0<\/span>artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. Timlin (Kristen\u00a0<\/span>Stewart), an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is\u00a0<\/span>when a mysterious group is revealed… Their mission \u2013 to use Saul\u2019s notoriety to shed light on the next phase\u00a0<\/span>of human evolution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Director\u2019s Statement\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n CRIMES OF THE FUTURE is a meditation on human evolution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Specifically – the ways in which we have had to take control of the process because we have created such powerful environments that did not exist previously. CRIMES OF THE FUTURE is an evolution of things I have done before. Fans will see key references to other scenes and moments from my other films. That\u2019s a continuity of my understanding of technology as connected to the human body.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Technology is always an extension of the human body, even when it seems to be very mechanical and non- human. A fist becomes enhanced by a club or a stone that you throw – but ultimately, that club or stone is an extension of some potency that the human body already has.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At this critical junction in human history, one wonders – can the human body evolve to solve problems we have created? Can the human body evolve a process to digest plastics and artificial materials not only as part of a solution to the climate crisis, but also, to grow, thrive, and survive?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Interview with David Cronenberg\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n DAVID CRONENBERG \u2013 Writer and Director\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What is Crimes of The Future about?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n In 1966 I saw a Danish movie called Sult <\/i>which means hunger in Danish, and it was based on a famous Danish novel by Knut Hamsun, which was directed by Henning Carlsen. In that movie the Per Oscarsson plays a poet, a sort of a broken, unrecognized poet who wanders the streets and has adventures and tries to create himself as a legitimate poet, literary force. At one point he\u2019s on a bridge and he\u2019s scribbling something in a pad that he carries with him, and you have a close up of it and it says \u201ccrimes of the future,\u201d and that really struck me. I thought, I want to read that poem. Of course he never writes it, but later I thought, well now that I\u2019m starting to become a filmmaker I think I would like to see the movie Crimes of the Future<\/i>, and so in 1970 I made an underground film, very low budget to say the least, called Crimes of the Future. <\/i>The title really provoked me, and I think that 1970 low-budget, sort of underground film didn\u2019t ever really satisfy all of the things that I thought could come out of that poem that never got written and so here we are many years later, like half a century maybe and I\u2019ve made another movie called Crimes of the Future<\/i>, and the only thing the two films have in common is that they are technically about \u201ccrimes of the future.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The idea then being that as technology changes, as society changes, things that didn\u2019t exist have come into existence and are suppressed for various reasons as being dangerous to society or a threat to whatever social structure exists, hence Crimes of the Future<\/i>. I start to think about the human body because I have always thought that was what we are. The human condition is the human body, so Crimes of the Future <\/i>could involve crimes that come out of what is happening to the human body… as it does evolve, it is changing, it\u2019s changing in very subtle ways and then some not so subtle ways. Partly it\u2019s because of what we\u2019re doing to the planet, partly it\u2019s what we\u2019re doing to ourselves with our own technology and so that intrigued me. I thought I\u2019d like to now make a movie that has to do with how society would react to changes in the human body that it thought were dangerous, were considered dangerous and should be suppressed. I thought that was an interesting topic for me to explore and that therefore is what the movie, Crimes of the Future <\/i>is about.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s the short answer?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n I\u2019d say Crimes of the Future <\/i>is about the crimes committed by the human body against itself, and I know that that\u2019s kind of mysterious and kind of confusing but that\u2019s my answer to that question.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What compels you to look at things that scare a lot of people especially now?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n I think there are a lot of cases that one can refer to of people embracing their disease, a disease they have, a disability that they have, a mutation that they have, it\u2019s part of a human desire to make something thing good out of whatever the human condition offers, and so I think Saul Tenser is just a sort of an exaggerated, extreme version of that. He has found himself producing new organs in his body or things that would be considered tumors. In this case they seem to have an organization that a tumor does not have. A tumor is really a kind of random collection of cells that grow uncontrollably, they do disrupt all\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n kinds of things in the human body but to no apparent purpose, and they\u2019re basically just destructive. In this case he\u2019s creating new organs that seem to have a function, we just don\u2019t know what that function is, and so it\u2019s a strange kind of designer cancer as one of the characters calls it. His goal is to incorporate it into his life, not to deny it, not to just destroy it but to make it something. In his case, he\u2019s making performance art out of these tumors and, with his partner, designs a series of performances which involve the exposure of these organs and, and a removal of the organs as though they are art creations that his body has undertaken on its own. It\u2019s partly a desire to come to grips with the reality of his own body, so it\u2019s a need in our human condition that our bodies are constantly changing and require adjustments by us, philosophically, emotionally to deal with those changes. So this is a sort of more structured exaggerated version of what Saul Tenser is undergoing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Do you think that could happen with our organs?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Oh I think we\u2019re doing it, I think we\u2019re definitely changing, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any doubt about it, it might not be as obvious as I have depicted it. A famous Nobel prize winner, Gerald Edelmen, said that the human brain is not at all like a computer. It is much more like a rainforest where there\u2019s a constant striving for dominance amongst the neurons and the different elements in the brain and they\u2019re constantly responding to the environment, that is to say the intake from your eyes, from your nose, from your, the senses and also how much you exercise it. So even just talking about the brain as the super organ of human existence, it is constantly changing and mutating and so it\u2019s not much of a stretch of the imagination to imagine that for other parts of the body. The digestive system responds, we now understand the microbiome in the human gut and the intestines, that it\u2019s actually a lot of living organisms there that communicate with the human brain. There\u2019s a constant connection these things would be considered science fiction years ago, and now are just understood as part of what the complexity of the human body is. So I don\u2019t think it\u2019s an exaggeration really, I think it\u2019s just a sort of extrapolation into the future that I\u2019m undertaking with this movie.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why is now the time to do this film?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Well I wrote this script for Crimes of the Future <\/i>in around 1998, 99, so it\u2019s over twenty years old and there were a couple of attempts to get it made and for various reasons it didn\u2019t get financed. That happens, that\u2019s not unusual, but it was only when the producer Robert Lantos phoned me and said, \u2018You know, have you looked at your old scripts,\u2019 and I said \u2018Because of its science-fiction technology core, I\u2019m sure it\u2019s completely irrelevant now.\u2019 And he said \u2018No, you should re-read it, it\u2019s more relevant than ever.\u2019 I thought that\u2019s a good line, and I read it and I thought he was right.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve never been much for prophecy, I don\u2019t think of art as being prophetic, but you can anticipate some things almost by accident, especially when you\u2019re writing something that is basically science-fiction as this movie is. You stumble upon something that has a trajectory to the future, and this story did have that and it was still pretty valid. I think people are more aware now, for example, of the toxicity of the environment that we are creating on Earth and how we are in some ways destroying the earth, we\u2019re certainly altering it, there\u2019s no question about that. To see how the idea that technology is really the extension of the human body, and the human will…there was a time when people thought that technology could be inhuman, and for me technology was always a human thing. I think in fact it\u2019s a reflection, it\u2019s a mirror that reflects back to us what we are, the good parts and the bad parts, the destructive parts and the excitingly creative humane parts so there is that element in this movie that talks about the reflection of what we are in technology.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How does this fit into your body of work?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n I don\u2019t really think about my larger work, honestly, I mean each project for me is a separate thing and I know that there will be connections amongst the films whether I\u2019ve written them myself or they\u2019re an adaptation or whether they\u2019re based on a play or a novel. I know that because I\u2019m interested enough to turn it into a movie which is a huge endeavor. It takes a lot of time and will and energy, that there will be connections amongst these that have to do with my sensibility, but that\u2019s as far as I go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Do you have a preference to filming your own work or adapting someone else\u2019s?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Once I have a script that I have committed to and the production and so on they\u2019re all the same. I mean there\u2019s no difference between my script and somebody else\u2019s, in fact I\u2019m just as hard on my own script as I would be on somebody else\u2019s. In the editing room, after shooting the movie, I\u2019m pretty brutal. They have to stop me from creating a 72 minute movie, you know I\u2019m in the odd position often of having producers begging me to put stuff back in. I like to cut, it\u2019s fun to see how lean you can be with it and still have the movie work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What was it like working with your old friend Viggo?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Well Viggo and I, we have a long term relationship and we\u2019re also friends. We know each other very well and we\u2019ve spent a lot of time together aside from movie making. So, at the same time we\u2019re both perfectionists up to a point and when it comes to work we\u2019re working as an actor-director relationship, but we do have a second hand. We do have a sort of a telepathic kind of understanding of each other because we\u2019ve worked together so many times. I mean, he is a director himself, he\u2019s a screenwriter, a musician, a poet, a publisher and so he approaches movie making that way. In other words, he\u2019s not shy about commenting on the script even if it\u2019s a scene that he, as his character is not in, and that\u2019s unusual, not too many actors do that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why was he the right person to play Saul?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Well, now the fact that Viggo and I are friends and I think he\u2019s a fabulous actor with his huge range still doesn\u2019t mean that you can cast him in any role and that would be correct for him. It\u2019s the same when he reads a script, even if it’s from me, a friend. It doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s a no-brainer and he will do the movie, it has to be something that works for him. As I say, ultimately casting is a black art, it\u2019s a very mysterious thing. Once you\u2019ve made the movie, if you’ve done it right, it\u2019s almost impossible to see any other actor in that role.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Can you talk about L\u00e9a?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n I originally offered the role of Timlin to L\u00e9a Seydoux. I had seen her in quite a few movies, and was interested in her as an actress and the structure of the movie was such that that role, several of the roles could be played by actresses or actors who had accents because they were either Greek or an African actor, like Welket had an accent from his country and the movie would support that. That was exciting to me because the language, the dialogue is very important in the movie despite the fact that it has special effects and so on…the dialogue is really quite critical. There\u2019s a lot of talking in the movie, so L\u00e9a with a French accent, I was thinking that she would be a really beautiful textural addition to the movie. At a certain point we were talking to certain other actresses about playing the role of Caprice, who is Tenser\u2019s performance partner and in some ways lover, it\u2019s ambiguous in the film.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After L\u00e9a read the script, she was very excited to be in it and to work with me she said, \u2018You know I\u2019d really like to play Caprice.\u2019 After I thought about it for awhile, I thought you know that\u2019s actually a great idea so I changed my mind and L\u00e9a plays Caprice and Kristen Stewart plays Timlin. The dynamic between those two is really very interesting because obviously they\u2019re very different, they come from very different places, they\u2019re about the same age but Kristin\u2019s very L.A. – American and L\u00e9a is very Parisian – French. You want an interesting dynamic, you want an interesting chemistry amongst your actors and that\u2019s part of the art of casting is not just one person who is playing the lead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To my non-surprise, L\u00e9a brought a great acting intelligence and culture to the role, along with an incredible emotional sense that I knew she would bring. It really transforms the character of Caprice. She\u2019s still saying the same dialogue that was in the original script, but coming from L\u00e9a it has a depth and an emotional impact that other actresses would not have brought, they may have brought something else but not that, so it was very exciting working with her. She\u2019s just a delight to work with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why did you make this such an ambiguous place and diverse people there?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n I mean part of it comes from my living in Toronto, which has been multi-cultural since I can remember. Being born in 1943, you have to understand, and in a section of Toronto that became Italian but before that had been Jewish. So to me the globalism that is much discussed either as a good thing or a bad thing it\u2019s happening, it\u2019s inevitable. Part of that is the internet of course, the connections amongst people, it\u2019s a huge change that you can be on social media and connect with people all over the world instantaneously. The cultures are interpenetrating each other and so my anticipation of any world of the future, but really as now is exactly this: that it should be not without its own unique individual character.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Globalism is becoming one bland simple thing, it\u2019s not at all, it\u2019s really quite complex and it\u2019s constantly shifting and changing much like the human brain, so that was the feel that I wanted the movie to have. Though I wrote it thinking about shooting in Toronto, I still was suggesting this kind of alternate reality that became much more particular when we decided that we would shoot the film in Athens, Greece. I really embraced the textures of Athens and the graffiti and the streets and the ocean rather than try to fight it and make it be more like Toronto. I wanted it to be exactly like what it was. I visited Athens in late 1965 so as you know, half a century later, I\u2019m back in Athens, it has of course changed a lot, but at the same time, it is an ancient city and so much of it is the same. It\u2019s very exciting to do that, and I found it really stimulating to be working there. It really helped create the feel of the interiority of this movie and the city in the movie.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Did shooting during COVID add to the experience considering the topic of the movie?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Well shooting a movie during the era of COVID in itself is an incredibly interesting experience. I did some acting in a couple of things, a Star Trek: Discovery <\/i>and also Slasher a Canadian series, and I was interested to act in those because I was anticipating making Crimes of the Future<\/i>. Those two TV series were being shot under COVID protocol, so wearing masks, having constant tests, keeping social distancing and still making a movie, which is a very social experience was revealing to me because I could see that it was possible to do and that you would sort of get used to the rhythm of that and it wouldn\u2019t hurt your filmmaking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There was that and then of course there was the environmental disaster that continues, climate change which was causing forest fires in British Columbia and Canada, but was also causing forest fires in many places in Europe including Athens. The forests that were in the north and the south of the city of Athens were on fire one morning, I woke up and I looked out my hotel window and I couldn\u2019t see anything, it was like total smoke… It was very scary. We managed to continue shooting and in a way it just confirmed the reality of, let\u2019s say the philosophy of the movie we were making, that things are changing, they\u2019re mutating, inside the human body as well as outside the human body. Just, the validity of the movie philosophically…of course it\u2019s entertainment, but part of the entertainment is that it has a resonance with people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How do you view the future now versus when you started your career?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n The future? I have less of it. At seventy-eight I have less of a future than I had before, but I have often said that philosophically I\u2019m an existentialist. I really think of myself that way, and part of the understanding what existentialism gives you as a philosophy is that we are constantly referring things to the future, we\u2019re constantly looking to the future, and that is part of what keeps us going and keeps us sane. At the same time, it can prevent us from living in the present fully, we\u2019re constantly anticipating what will happen, and so I try to do both in the films. I feel that movies are not really predictive, I mean they\u2019re not prophetic, in some science fiction it is \u2013 science fiction writers, like Arthur C. Clarke.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For him it was a triumph that he predicted satellites and satellite communication. To him, that would fulfill some of what his writing was about. For me, that\u2019s not my game, it\u2019s more to understand what the human condition is now, and it can sometimes be illuminated by trying to see where we\u2019ll go. Looking at the human condition and, and all its glory, and its many phases and trying to understand what it is to be alive is a crucial thing if you\u2019re an existentialist. It\u2019s like I\u2019m at the seashore and I\u2019m picking up seashells and I\u2019m saying \u2018whoa look at this one, this is really incredible, how did this creature create this thing?\u2019 I don\u2019t have the answers to anything, but I have the curiosity to look at things that other people don\u2019t have time to look at, and I have the time to do that so that\u2019s what I\u2019m giving them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Can you talk about working Carol and the creations?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n One of the fun things about creating technology that doesn\u2019t actually exist is designing the technology and anticipating how it might work and how it might not work. That\u2019s really fun for me, it’s always there that filmmaking is a very childlike event, you\u2019re like kids in a sandbox, you know and you\u2019re dressing up in funny clothes and you\u2019re putting on a mustache and you\u2019re talking with a funny accent and you\u2019re pretending to be people that you\u2019re not. It\u2019s very childlike, and you can get very serious and professional and all of those things about it, and you might lose sight of that childlike joy of creation, but it\u2019s a mistake if you do. You really can tell which filmmakers are still in touch with that, and I am in touch with that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I think undoubtedly there are connections between those effects that we have created physically and effects from movies in my past because it\u2019s always the body that is the center of these things for me, and that is because as I say it\u2019s easy to lose sight of what we are physically. So to emphasize that my feeling that technology is the human body, it comes from the human body, the technology that I tend to create in my films when I\u2019m doing this as I\u2019ve done on Videodrome or Existenz, tends to be very body-based, looks very organic, looks very physical, looks like it grew from cells. That is the designs that we have done for Crimes of the Future<\/i>, and working once again with Carol Spier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So given the designs that I was anticipating, and then they were described to some extent in the script, it was exciting to get to work with Carol Spier again. We literally have been working with each other for half a century and, and once again as with Viggo, you have a collaborator with Carol, a collaboration that\u2019s gone on much longer so there is a shorthand and a telepathy. To make real these things that were in the script were just sort of suggestions of shapes and forms, and Carol, as usual, finds collaborators in her art department who can realize these things for us both.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of the liberating aspects for me is my attitude towards my script as though it\u2019s just a suggestion, it\u2019s not like the Bible where it must be accurate, it\u2019s not like Shakespeare. It is a process, and so there were suggestions in the script, for example there are performance artists who base their performances on their bodies in the script as was the case twenty years ago when I wrote the movie. That also held true for the very special bed which the lead character, played by Viggo, Saul Tenser, sleeps in because he has to have the bed constantly moving in his sleep because he\u2019s experiencing pain, but the bed is so plugged into him that it can anticipate these painful episodes, and move him in order to alleviate the pain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s a chair that does the same thing for him because he has eating problems, and he has to be moved around constantly so that he can eat. The designs for these that I suggested in the script were simplistic, very mechanical, and in design terms we ended up going much further with very organic and flesh like and bone like creations. These were designs that evolved over many months of discussion and attempts to make what was in the script work as it was written, and then could see it really wasn\u2019t that effective when you try to make it physical, actually make the devices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is also something exciting to do physically as opposed to with just visual effects. I mean these days, and it\u2019s been this way for quite a long time, computer effects, CGI, computer generated imagery are great tools, but when it\u2019s overused you get the feeling that things are kind of cartoon-like. When they\u2019re used in conjunction with physical effects that are actually there, that is for me the beauty of visuals effects, that you can really anticipate them on the set, you can add things so it\u2019s a combination of physical effects, prosthetics that are applied to actors\u2019 bodies. Then CG effects that add things to it that you couldn\u2019t do physically, and the combination can be really very powerful, and we certainly went quite far with that in Crimes<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n PRODUCTION NOTES\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n The Journey: 20 years in the making\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Written and directed by David Cronenberg (A History of Violence<\/i>, Eastern Promises<\/i>, Crash<\/i>), CRIMES OF THE FUTURE <\/b>is a film more than 20 years in the making. The award-winning filmmaker originally wrote the script in 1999 but set it aside for two decades until deciding that now was the right moment to make the film. Says Cronenberg about revisiting the work, many years later, \u201cVarious elements have risen to the top of public consciousness around the world – like the fact, for example, that microplastics are in every human being on earth right now, because of what has happened to the oceans. That made me realize the film is more relevant than ever.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CRIMES OF THE FUTURE sees Cronenberg join forces with a number of longtime collaborators including distinguished producer Robert Lantos (Barney\u2019s Version, Eastern Promises, Crash<\/i>), award-winning production designer Carol Spier (Crash<\/i>, Dead Ringers<\/i>) and three-time Academy Award-winning composer Howard Shore (The Song Of Names<\/i>, The Lord Of The Rings <\/i>Trilogy, A History of Violence<\/i>). Familiar faces join Cronenberg in front of the camera, as well, including Viggo Mortensen, after his critically acclaimed work in Cronenberg\u2019s A History of Violence<\/i>, Eastern Promises<\/i>, and A Dangerous Method<\/i>; and Don McKellar for a second time, following eXistenZ<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lantos, who first read the script those many decades ago, was fundamental in convincing Cronenberg to make this film. \u201cDavid likes to say that the reason he is making Crimes of The Future <\/i>is because he has unfinished business with the future. For me, it\u2019s because I have unfinished business with Cronenberg. We haven’t made a film together since Eastern Promises<\/i>, but we have been talking about Crimes of The Future <\/i>for some 20 years,\u201d said Lantos. \u201cTo piece together a film of this ambition and complexity was a tall mountain to climb, made possible by three brilliant and courageous actors – Viggo Mortensen, L\u00e9a Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart. They are prepared to take risks and stretches boundaries, and that kind of courage is what it took to get this film to where we are now.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Cronenberg Effect\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWhat attracts me to work with David is the uniqueness and boldness of his voice. A Cronenberg film couldn\u2019t be somebody else’s, it\u2019s not interchangeable,\u201d states Lantos. Cronenberg is known for working with some of the industry\u2019s most talented actors from across the globe. CRIMES OF THE FUTURE attracted a vibrant and energetic cast which includes Viggo Mortensen, Kristen Stewart, L\u00e9a Seydoux, and Scott Speedman, among others, who brilliantly met the task of bringing Cronenberg\u2019s vision to life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Viggo Mortensen, who has worked with Cronenberg four times, describes him as \u201cone of the world\u2019s most uniquely gifted filmmakers\u201d and says he was drawn to the film \u201cmore than anything by the chance to work with David again.\u201d L\u00e9a Seydoux, who had not worked with Cronenberg before, describes him as a visionary, and full of enthusiasm. \u201cIt meant a lot to me to work with Cronenberg because he\u2019s such an iconic director,\u201d she says. Similarly, this film marks the first time working with Cronenberg for Scott Speedman, and he deeply appreciated the freedom Cronenberg gave his actors to explore their characters, calling this, \u201cone of my favourite director-actor experiences ever.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Lihi Kornowski, who plays opposite Speedman as Lang\u2019s troubled ex-wife Djuna, was excited to work with Cronenberg, as well, noting: \u201cI\u2019m a big fan, I have watched all of his films. Every single one of them is such a strong and bold statement on critical and timeless issues.\u201d A staple of the Canadian film industry as both an actor and filmmaker, Don McKellar, who plays Wippet, says Cronenberg \u201cknows how to keep everyone in the same world\u201d. \u201cFor me as a Canadian director,\u201d he continues, \u201cDavid is THE example of a career in Canada… I wouldn\u2019t have pursued my career without his example.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n About the Characters\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Cronenberg is well-known for creating iconic and unique characters. Their originality is only further underlined by the creativity of the talent who are pitch perfect in translating the script to the screen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As the main protagonist, Saul Tenser is a performance artist beloved for his events, which feature live surgery on the new organs his body generates. Portrayed by Mortensen, Saul is the central engine of the story. Mortensen describes him as \u201ca groundbreaking, subversive artist who is keenly aware of the impact that his physical performances have on audiences,\u201d and as a man with a \u201cvisceral desire to leave a public record of his accomplishments.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Caprice, played by L\u00e9a Seydoux, is Saul\u2019s partner and a former trauma surgeon who once saved his life. Seydoux defines her as, \u201ca positive character because she wants to create beauty. She really believes in her art and that she can create beauty out of emptiness.\u201d Together, \u201cthey unleash things in each other and become artists; they do performances where basically they cut organs out of Saul\u2019s body.\u201d Mortensen describes the relationship between Saul and Caprice as \u201ca creative team, performance artists” who \u201cwork in a very underground world.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Heading up the National Organ Registry is Timlin, played by Kristen Stewart, and Wippet, played by Don McKellar. Both are career bureaucrats who find themselves face to face with Saul, an artist they each admire in their own unique way. Timlin is rather demure in her initial approach but eventually loses control of her disciplined demeanor, whereas Wippet is much less subtle in his adulation. McKellar describes the film\u2019s characters as very idiosyncratic, especially his role. \u201cWippet\u2019s very enthusiastic, in an absurd and obsessive way,\u201d he says. \u201cBut his obsession starts to take over, and that happens to a lot of these characters.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For his part, Speedman enjoyed leaning into the unknown in playing the role of Lang Dotrice, a leader steeped in mystery, calling him \u201cone of the most volatile characters\u201d he\u2019s ever played and that it\u2019s \u201cdifficult to pin down what he\u2019s after\u201d. \u201cHe\u2019s sort of ping-ponging through emotions, so it\u2019s really hard to control, which for an actor is great,\u201d Speedman says. \u201cBecause you can\u2019t really control what you\u2019re going to do, you just have to let it ride, trust the words and let it go and see where it takes you, which has been really fun for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Welket Bungu\u00e9 brings the multi-layered Detective Cope to life; as a detective with the recently formed New Vice Unit of Justice, Bungu\u00e9 says Cope is \u201cpart of a bureaucratic system but he\u2019s inventive and he brings a certain complexity.\u201d Describing Cope as an ideologist, Bungu\u00e9 says the way the character was written gave him the space to show his skills as an actor and he \u201ctried to play this character as a Shakespearean character.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Router and Berst are the technical experts who maintain and repair the machines powering Saul\u2019s everyday life, from his Breakfaster chair, to his OrchidBed bed, to the surgical devices in his art shows. Nadia Litz, who plays Router, calls the two characters \u201cRosencrantz and Guildenstern, but with drills\u201d and loved what a multifaceted role it was. Playing Berst, Tanaya Beatty calls Cronenberg\u2019s characters \u201calmost dreamlike\u201d in that they\u2019re \u201cdifficult to pinpoint but then there\u2019s something that you seem to understand, that speaks to you.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Shooting in Greece\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI hadn\u2019t been to Athens since 1965; there have been a lot of changes, of course, but the texture of the city is fantastic,\u201d Cronenberg shares. \u201cIt\u2019s an ancient city, so it has amazing locations and textures. For this film, we needed a big old city, with history everywhere – a city that has been lived in by millions and millions of people over many, many years. For me, a lot of movie-making is found art,\u201d he continues. \u201cYou find things. Even right there on the day that you\u2019re shooting. Or you\u2019re looking for one location and by accident, you see another location that nobody has suggested. A lot of movie directing has to do with spaces – if you change the nature of the space, it really changes how you direct the movie.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Collaborative Duo: Cronenberg X Spier\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Production designer Carol Spier has worked with Cronenberg on almost every one of his films. \u201cI\u2019ve worked with David since Fast Company <\/i>and have done just about every single film except for Spider <\/i>and Cosmopolis <\/i>because I was working on other films at the time. Because David and I have worked together for such a long time, we have kind of a shorthand – I understand what he likes, he knows what I can do for him and what I can’t do for him. He surprises me sometimes, but most of the time I know what he likes.\u201d In creating Saul\u2019s apartment, Spier thought that he should live in a place where he was protected from the environment, leading to a bunker-inspired set, but the shape came from the idea that it should be fluid, so curved walls. The main inspiration for his bedroom came from a photo she saw of the inside of a cello.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The film utilizes a powerful combination of visual effects and physical effects to bring the designs to life. \u201cI knew from the beginning that this would be a combination of visual effects – both CGI and physical effects that were created as we did in the old days,\u201d says Cronenberg. \u201cCGI has become such an important tool in the toolbox of filmmaking, it\u2019s used even when your movie is not a special effects movie. On the other hand, you\u2019re often creating new things that did not physically exist on the set. For us, it\u2019s a combination of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On creating the world of CRIMES OF THE FUTURE, Cronenberg says, \u201cThat\u2019s another part of the sci-fi game, you can establish any rules that you want – but you have to then be consistent and play by them. People who engage with this narrative will go along with anything as long as you are being honest within the narrative. And that\u2019s the trick, that\u2019s always the trick.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Audience\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Cronenberg doesn\u2019t create his films with his audience in mind, but on diving back into the sci-fi world, he says, \u201cit\u2019s always exciting to get people who are not sci-fi fans somehow being interested in your movie because they see in it something beyond a genre picture… It always has the potential to be more than just a very niche kind of film… Sci-fi and horror always have the potential to break out into a broader audience.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first read the script, I was instantly drawn to it, as it has the same kind of qualities that Crash <\/i>does – it creates a universe of its own…in a way that only David can pull off,\u201d Lantos says. \u201cThis movie is a special piece of writing that seems to pull together a lot of threads of David\u2019s personal preoccupations,\u201d Mortensen adds, \u201cCRIMES OF THE FUTURE probably will be [Cronenberg\u2019s] most autobiographical story.\u201d Seydoux says, \u201ceverybody will have a different perspective on things\u201d but describes the film\u2019s message as, \u201ca metaphor about creativity and art in general\u201d and “that out of chaos you can create beauty and out of emptiness you can create meaning.\u201d McKellar calls the film big and ambitious, saying, \u201cit feels like the world is crumbling around us, which could be the present or it could be the near future\u201d and calls CRIMES OF THE FUTURE \u201cone of the more sci-fi things [Cronenberg]\u2019s done in a while,\u201d but that it doesn\u2019t look like anyone\u2019s idea of a traditional sci-fi film. Lantos says, \u201cit\u2019s a film that will leave no one unmoved.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CAST BIOS\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n VIGGO MORTENSEN (\u201cTenser\u201d)\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Viggo Mortensen has earned acclaim for his work in a wide range of films. Some of these include GREEN BOOK, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, as well as CAPTAIN FANTASTIC, EASTERN PROMISES, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, THE ROAD, APPALOOSA, FAR FROM MEN, THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY, and THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. Mortensen also received notable praise for his recent directorial debut FALLING, which he also wrote and produced. Next, in addition to CRIMES OF THE FUTURE, he will be seen starring in Ron Howard\u2019s THIRTEEN LIVES, about the heroic rescue of the Thai youth soccer team from a flooded cave in 2018, as well as in EUREKA, the new movie from Lisandro Alonso, who directed him in JAUJA. Mortensen has received various nominations and awards from groups in addition to the Academy, including the Screen Actors Guild, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He is also a poet, photographer, painter, and the editor and publisher of Perceval Press, an independent company he founded in 2002.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n L\u00c9A SEYDOUX (\u201cCaprice\u201d)\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n L\u00e9a Seydoux reprised her role as \u2018Madeleine Swann\u2019 in the James Bond franchise, NO TIME TO DIE, opposite Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, and Lashana Lynch. Universal Pictures International released the film internationally and in the UK on September 30, 2021 and MGM\/United Artists Releasing launched the picture in the US on October 8, 2021.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Additionally, Seydoux currently stars in the Wes Anderson film, THE FRENCH DISPATCH, alongside Adrien Brody and Benicio Del Toro. The story centers on a love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city that brings to life a collection of stories published in \u201cThe French Dispatch\u201d magazine. The film had its world premiere at the 74th Annual Cannes Film Festival on July 12, 2021, and Searchlight Pictures released the film in the US on October 22, 2021.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Seydoux most recently wrapped production on Mia Hansen-L\u00f8ve\u2019s UN BEAU MATIN, opposite Pascal Greggory, Nicole Garcia, and Melvil Poupaud. The romance film follows the story of a woman and her family as they navigate the struggles of finding a place for her father to live as he suffers from a neurodegenerative disease. Additionally, Seydoux stars as \u2018L\u2019Amante Anglaise\u2019 in Arnaud Desplechin\u2019s DECEPTION. Based on Philip Roth\u2019s 1990 novel of the same name, the film follows an American novelist living in London who converses with his wife, mistress, and other female characters that he may have dreamed up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The film had its world premiere at the 74th Annual Cannes Film Festival. Seydoux also stars in director Bruno Dumont\u2019s FRANCE, which revolves around a celebrity journalist (Seydoux) whose life is overturned by a car accident.\u00a0 <\/span>Further, Seydoux plays the role of \u2018Lizzy\u2019 in director Ildik\u00f3 Enyedi\u2019s drama THE STORY OF MY WIFE, opposite Gijs Naber, Louis Garrel, Josef Hader, Sergio Rubini, and Jasmine Trinca. Based on the novel of the same name, the story follows a sea captain who makes a bet with a friend that he will marry the first woman who walks inside. Both films had their world premieres at the 74th Annual Cannes Film Festival in July.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Seydoux was previously seen in Drake Doremus\u2019 ZOE opposite Ewan McGregor, and Thomas Vinterburg\u2019s KURSK opposite Colin Firth and Matthias Schoenaerts. She starred alongside Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel and Gaspard Ulliel in Xavier Dolan\u2019s IT\u2019S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD, winner of the Grand Prix and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at Cannes. Other credits include Mosco Boucault\u2019s French Drama, OH MERCY!, Sam Mendes\u2019 SPECTRE, Beno\u00eet Jacquot\u2019s DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID, and Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019 THE LOBSTER, opposite Rachel Weisz, Colin Farrell, and John C. Reilly, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 2014, Seydoux starred in several films including Bertrand Bonello\u2019s SAINT LAURENT, which was nominated for several awards at Cannes; Wes Anderson\u2019s THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL opposite Ed Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody, and Billy Murray, which went on to win four Oscars; Christophe Gans\u2019 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST alongside Vincent Cassel, winning the C\u00e9sar Award for \u201cBest Production Design.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 2013, Seydoux starred opposite Ad\u00e8le Exarchopoulos in Abdellatif Kechiche\u2019s BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR. The French romantic coming-of-age drama was the first film to have the Palme d\u2019Or awarded to both the director and the lead actresses, with Seydoux and Exarchopoulos becoming the only women (apart from director Jane Campion) to have ever won the award.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Seydoux\u2019s other credits include Brad Bird\u2019s MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL opposite Tom Cruise; Quentin Tarantino\u2019s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS opposite Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, and Michael Fassbender; Ridley Scott\u2019s ROBIN HOOD opposite Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. Seydoux is currently featured as one of the faces of Louis Vuitton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n KRISTEN STEWART (\u201cTimlin\u201d)\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Kristen Stewart is one of the most accomplished, talented, and in-demand actresses in Hollywood. Stewart\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/COTFStill1_CourtesyofNEON--1024x768.jpg\")
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