crimes of the future Director David Cronenberg sat down for an interview diversity to discuss streaming services, mainly Netflix. The writer/director/actor/author spoke about the challenges of funding a film, even when you’re a director with a cult following and an A-list cast. Making an independent film without access to Netflix’s money can be a struggle.

“I’m pretty sure we’ve spoken to Amazon and Netflix [Crimes of the Future], and it wasn’t a project they wanted to do. And I think my feeling is that I was really, really interested in the whole Netflix streaming phenomenon, definitely. But I think they are still very conservative. I mean, I think they’re still like a Hollywood studio. I thought they might be different.”

According to Cronenberg, Netflix is ​​still very conservative when it comes to the content they produce themselves. Sure, they’ll call an interesting streaming series from Korea or Finland a Netflix Original, but that’s not really because they’ve acquired anything. Cronenberg also spoke about the freedom that independent distributors or financiers are willing to give you to be more experimental. Cronenberg thinks that’s because they need to give you something Netflix can’t give you.

“And that is the freedom they offer. In a way, that was true of the Hollywood studios. Mostly they were very conservative mainstream. I think things haven’t changed as much as people thought they would. Netflix has certainly influenced the film industry and the exhibition industry with cinemas. To be honest, I think cinemas are dying. I think there will be theaters, but there won’t be that many, and they’ll show niche movies because otherwise they’ll only show Marvel superhero movies.”

David Cronenberg tried his hand at other projects with Netflix

A series Cronenberg was working on for the streaming site never materialized because, as it turns out, getting a series on Netflix isn’t easy.

“I tried and we got to two episodes and then they decided not to do it. And I was disappointed because I was interested in streaming cinematically. I thought this would be a very interesting experience for me as a writer, as a creator, and then as a director. And maybe one day I’ll have that experience, but right now it’s still about filmmaking, not filmmaking. So the project I spoke to Netflix about will be a feature film instead.”

The project, which has transitioned from series to film, will expand on Cronenberg’s book Consumed. Cronenberg doesn’t have a script yet, but will write it himself. But that comes afterwards That shrouds. In the meantime, crimes of the future will be premiered in competition in Cannes. Neon is released crimes of the future in US theaters June 3.

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