Two projects that filmmaker David Cronenberg was linked to and ultimately dropped out of over the past year was both a sequel to “Eastern Promises” and a remake of his own classic “The Fly.”
Now, talking with The Playlist, Cronenberg has revealed that Fox shot down the project immediately after it was pitched – “it was a budget problem, basically.”
It also wasn’t a remake as reports had suggested. “It was more of a sequel or a sidebar. It was a meditation on fly-ness. None of the same characters or anything and, of course, with an understanding of modern technology. It was something I was very pleased with and it was a disappointment not to get it made” he says.
As for the scrapped ‘Eastern’ follow-up? “Focus Features couldn’t agree on a budget, basically. I thought it was a very ambitious script and I wanted to do it properly and they really felt the financial restraints of the world in general. It was a really budget disagreement. As far as I’m concerned I’m not involved anymore.”
What was the storyline? “We would [have] see Nikolai go to Russia and there would be Russian elements and so on and so on. Steve Knight wrote a lovely script.”
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