wasn’t writing it to be a movie. So I don’t know if I really want to adapt it.” In fact, Cronenberg says he is in no hurry to find a new film project. “I don’t feel that I have to make a film just to make a film,” he says. “And I don’t need to do it for the money. So I can afford to wait or generate it myself. I’m pathetically open and available.”
‘We can do things nobody else can do, because of that half-North American, half-European sensibility we have’ david cronenberg
www.screendaily.com
Caitlin Cronenberg
the european influence Having secured his own measure of creative freedom over a 40-year career, Cronenberg can offer a valuable perspective on the careers of younger Canadian film-makers — exemplified by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) and JeanMarc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) — who are being courted by Hollywood. “In some ways it’s creatively a dangerous thing, that flirtation with Hollywood,” Cronenberg argues. “It has destroyed quite a few European film-makers. “After you get used to making movies for $200m,” he goes on, “it’s really hard to make a movie for $13m [the budget of Maps To The Stars]. You have to have the mindset for that, and you might lose that mindset and never be able to get it back “I won’t mention names, but recently someone came to me for a project after a film-maker who’s had a huge success wanted to make it for $60m or $70m and these people were thinking more like $14m or $15m. And that director could not realign himself to accept that kind of budget. It was just unthinkable.” Rather than going mega-budget, says Cronenberg, Canadian film-makers should exploit their “wonderfully positioned situation. I feel that I’ve always been halfway between Hollywood and Europe, geographically but also artistically. Influenced by Hollywood films, as everyone has been, but also by European film-making. “And that’s a great place for us to be. It’s a very privileged position, and the more we take advantage of it the better off we are. If Jean-Marc and Denis are careful and they’re not too seduced by Hollywood and they keep the special sensibility which they both have, that’s a continuation of what I and Atom Egoyan have done and I think it’s the way for us. “I don’t think we should be making $200m Hollywood films. There are a lot of other people that can do that. But we can do some things nobody else can do, just because of that half-North American, s half-European sensibility we have.” n
May 2014 Canada Special 11