Crimes of the Future: Sci-fi horror from veteran David Cronenberg in which an actor has his body altered by synthetic means.
Film plot and background
The near future: Mankind has taken another step towards the modification of the human body. By means of the so-called AES – the Accelerated Evolution Snydrome – the body can be altered via its natural make-up by synthetic means. While some look forward to this development, others want to do everything they can to regulate the process.
Among the proponents is actor and performer Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), who volunteers his body to science, the authorities and his loyal fans to show how he replaces his incarnate organs with artificially created ones. He is assisted by his partner and assistant Caprice (Léa Seydoux).
“Crimes of the Future” – background, cast, cinema release
Eight years lie between David Cronenberg’s last directorial effort and his new project “Crimes of the Future”. If “Map to the Stars” depicted a bitter reckoning about the supposedly beautiful life in Hollywood, “Crimes of the Future” is more reminiscent of his early works such as “Videodrome” and “The Fly” in terms of style to body horror.
The main actor is Viggo Mortensen, with whom Cronenberg has worked more in the past – for example in “Eastern Promises” and Mortensen’s directorial debut “Falling”, in which Cronenberg had a small role. Mortensen described the idea for the film as a disturbing as well as good film noir idea and in “Crimes of the Future” is already in front of the camera for the fourth time in a Cronenberg film.
The “Crimes of the Future” cast is complemented by stars such as Léa Seydoux (“Blue is a Warm Colour”), Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”), Scott Speedman (“You – You’ll Love Me”), Welket Bungué (“Berlin Alexanderplatz”) and Denise Capezza (“Baby”).
The world premiere of “Crimes of the Future” took place at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where the film competed for the Palme d’Or. The German theatrical release was dated for 3 November 2022. Filming took place in Greece in late summer 2021. A Cronenberg film entitled “Crimes of the Future” was already released in the 1970s, but the two films only have the identical title in common.
