David Cronenberg is in the early stages of developing a TV series that would mark his debut as a creator of episodic narrative.
The director of cult films such as “Crash” and “Naked Lunch,” who is being honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Venice Film Festival, revealed that he is working on a long-form personal TV project during a panel on the future of cinema at the fest. But he declined to add any specifics, because he “can’t talk about it yet.”
Cronenberg has directed single TV episodes before. In 2015 he turned down an offer to helm the second season of “True Detective” because, he said at the time, he did not like the script.
During the panel, Cronenberg reiterated trenchant statements he’s made recently about the collective moviegoing experience in theaters being destined to die and how “he does not care.” But the venerated film director also clarified that he does not think movie-making itself is dying but rather “just evolving.”
“Today TV screens are getting bigger and bigger and therefore the difference between theatre and domestic viewing has become really flimsy,” he said. Cronenberg noted that this is reflected in the visual language directors are now using.
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“The rule used to be that closeup shots were only done for TV, and not for movies. But today that’s no longer the case.”
