The most memorable David Cronenberg films have always been the ones he scripts himself. The man’s perceptions come out on paper in a way that is rivaled by no one. But the last feature script that came wholly from his head was eXistenZ, written a decade ago. Detractors would say, based on the movie’s weird structure and off-kilter feel, that he’s better off working from other writers’ pages these days. Currently, the Robert Ludlum estate agrees.
The decade-long draught of fully original Cronenberg material has me excited that he’s writing a novel. At the Rome Film Festival the director said he’s written sixty pages so far, and that based on that work he’s had significant publisher interest. “It’s at a very delicate phase right now, so I can’t really talk about
it. It’s not like Stephen King, I don’t know what it’s like but you
wouldn’t call it a horror or science fiction novel at all. But what it
is exactly, well, I don’t know yet.” His inability to describe the book is currently the most interesting thing about it; makes it sound perfectly true to form.