1. David Cronenberg is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological.
56 Facts About David Cronenberg
1. 2.
David Cronenberg's films have polarized critics and audiences alike; he has earned critical acclaim and has sparked controversy for his depictions of gore and violence.
3.
David Cronenberg's films have won numerous awards, including the Special Jury Prize for Crash at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, a unique award that is distinct from the Jury Prize as it is not given annually, but only at the request of the official jury, who in this case gave the award "for originality, for daring, and for audacity".
4.
David Cronenberg was born in Toronto, Ontario, on March 15,1943.
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David Cronenberg is the son of Esther, a musician, and Milton David Cronenberg, a writer and editor.
6.
David Cronenberg was raised in a "middle-class progressive Jewish family".
7.
David Cronenberg's father was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and his mother was born in Toronto; all of his grandparents were Jews from Lithuania.
8.
David Cronenberg read comic books, noting his favorites were Tarzan, Little Lulu, Uncle Scrooge, Blackhawk, Plastic Man, Superman, and the original Fawcett Comics version of Captain Marvel, later known as Shazam.
9.
Early films that later proved influential on David Cronenberg's career include avant-garde, horror, science fiction, and thriller films, such as Un Chien Andalou, Vampyr, War of the Worlds, Freaks, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Alphaville, Performance, and Duel.
10.
David Cronenberg cited less obvious films as influences, including comedies like The Bed Sitting Room, as well as Disney cartoons such as Bambi and Dumbo.
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David Cronenberg said he found these two Disney animated films, as well as Universal's live-action Blue Lagoon, "terrifying" which influenced his approach to horror.
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David Cronenberg went on to say that Bambi was the "first important film" he ever saw, citing the moment when Bambi's mother died as particularly powerful.
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David Cronenberg even wished to screen Bambi as part of a museum exhibition of his influences, but Disney refused him permission.
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In terms of conventional horror films that frightened him, David Cronenberg cited Don't Look Now.
15.
David Cronenberg attended Dewson Street Public School, Kent Senior School, Harbord Collegiate Institute and North Toronto Collegiate Institute.
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David Cronenberg enrolled at the University of Toronto for Honours Science in 1963, but changed to Honours English Language and Literature the next year.
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David Cronenberg graduated from university in 1967, at the top of his class with a general Bachelor of Arts.
18.
David Cronenberg decided to not study for a master of arts after making Stereo.
19.
Cronenberg's fascination with the film Winter Kept Us Warm, by classmate David Secter, sparked his interest in film.
20.
David Cronenberg began frequenting film camera rental houses and learned the art of filmmaking.
21.
David Cronenberg made two short films, Transfer and From the Drain, with a few hundred dollars.
22.
In 1981, David Cronenberg directed the science-fiction horror film Scanners.
23.
David Cronenberg followed it with another science-fiction horror film Videodrome starring James Woods.
24.
David Cronenberg directed The Fly, starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis.
25.
David Cronenberg has not generally worked within the world of big-budget, mainstream Hollywood filmmaking, although he has had occasional near misses.
26.
Peter Suschitzky was the director of photography for The Empire Strikes Back, and David Cronenberg remarked that Suschitzky's work in that film "was the only one of those movies that actually looked good", which was a motivating factor to work with him on Dead Ringers.
27.
Since Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg has worked with Suschitzky on each of his films.
28.
David Cronenberg has collaborated with composer Howard Shore on all of his films since The Brood, with the exception of The Dead Zone, which was scored by Michael Kamen.
29.
The novel was considered "unfilmable", and David Cronenberg acknowledged that a straight translation into film would "cost 400 million dollars and be banned in every country in the world".
30.
David Cronenberg stated that while writing the screenplay for Naked Lunch, he felt a moment of synergy with Burroughs' writing style.
31.
David Cronenberg felt the connection between his screenwriting style and Burroughs' prose style was so strong, that he jokingly remarked that should Burroughs pass on, he might write his next novel.
32.
David Cronenberg has appeared as an actor in other directors' films.
33.
David Cronenberg has said that his films should be seen "from the point of view of the disease", and that in Shivers, for example, he identifies with the characters after they become infected with the anarchic parasites.
34.
Disease and disaster, in David Cronenberg's work, are less problems to be overcome than agents of personal transformation.
35.
In 2005, Cronenberg publicly disagreed with Paul Haggis' choice of the same name for the latter's Oscar-winning film Crash, arguing that it was "very disrespectful" to the "important and seminal" J G Ballard novel on which Cronenberg's film was based.
36.
David Cronenberg has said that the decision to direct it was influenced by his having had to defer some of his salary on the low-budgeted Spider, but it was one of his most critically acclaimed films to date, along with Eastern Promises, a film about the struggle of one man to gain power in the Russian Mafia.
37.
In 2008, David Cronenberg realized two extra-cinematographic projects: the exhibition Chromosomes at the Rome Film Fest, and the opera The Fly at the LaOpera in Los Angeles and Theatre Chatelet in Paris.
38.
In July 2010, David Cronenberg completed production on A Dangerous Method, an adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play The Talking Cure, starring Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Vincent Cassel, and frequent collaborator Viggo Mortensen.
39.
Cronenberg appears as himself in the minute-long short film The Death of David Cronenberg, shot by his daughter Caitlin, which was released digitally on September 19,2021.
40.
In February 2021, Mortensen said David Cronenberg had refined an older script he had written and hopes to film it with Mortensen that summer.
41.
David Cronenberg further hinted that it is a "strange film noir" and resembles Cronenberg's earlier body horror films.
42.
David Cronenberg wrote an original script for Universal after Videodrome titled Six Legs, but the film was never made although aspects were incorporated into The Fly and Naked Lunch.
43.
David Cronenberg was offered the role of director for Witness while it was under the name Come Home, but declined as he "could never be a fan of the Amish".
44.
David Cronenberg was offered the director's position for Return of the Jedi, Flashdance, Top Gun, and Beverly Hills Cop.
45.
David Cronenberg worked for nearly a year on a version of Total Recall, but experienced "creative differences" with producers Dino De Laurentiis and Ronald Shusett; a different version of the film was eventually made by Paul Verhoeven.
46.
In 1993, David Cronenberg signed a deal with Paragon Entertainment Corporation in which he would create a six-part television series called Crimes Against Nature for CBC Television.
47.
In 1999, David Cronenberg was reportedly interested in taking the helm of Charlie Kaufman's adaptation of Confessions of Dangerous Mind, with Sean Penn at that time circling to star.
48.
At one stage, David Cronenberg was going to make The Singing Detective as a horror film, with Al Pacino starring.
49.
In 2004, David Cronenberg was attached to direct London Fields, based on Martin Amis' 1991 novel of the same name.
50.
In 2012, David Cronenberg said the Eastern Promises sequel had fallen through due to budget disagreement with Focus Features.
51.
In 2010, it was announced that David Cronenberg would be directing an adaption of As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem.
52.
David Cronenberg has stated that it is not a traditional sequel, but rather a "parallel story".
53.
David Cronenberg married his first wife, Margaret Hindson, in 1972: their seven-year marriage ended in 1979 amidst personal and professional differences.
54.
David Cronenberg said that he found the shooting of the climactic scene, in which Nola was strangled by her husband, to be "very satisfying".
55.
David Cronenberg received the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for Crash.
56.
In 2009 David Cronenberg received the Legion d'honneur from the government of France.