Teaser for David Cronenberg's ‘The Shrouds'

UPDATE: We have our first look footage of “The Shrouds.”

EARLIER: Amidst all of the Cannes buzz, it shouldn’t be forgotten that David Cronenberg is set to premiere his latest film, “The Shrouds.” We now have our first poster and some new images for Cronenberg’s latest — they can be seen below this post. As always, Cronenberg will be in dark territory here.

The film stars Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, and Sandrine Holt, and will be in competition. Cronenberg has never won the Palme d’Or. He came close to winning it in 1996 with “Crash,” but the story goes that then jury president Francis Ford Coppola blocked his fellow jurors from awarding “Crash” the top prize.

“The Shrouds” still has no U.S. distribution, but French distributor Pyramide Films has announced a September 25, 2024 release date in France. The film is 119 minutes. This makes it the longest feature of Cronenberg’s career — 1988’s “Dead Ringers” and 1991’s “Naked Lunch” were both 116 minutes.

Cronenberg’s latest follows Cassel’s innovative businessman, and grieving widower, who builds a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud. Production on “The Shrouds” wrapped on June 19th. It was a four-week shoot. At 81 years of age, David Cronenberg is as efficient as ever.

Last year, Kruger revealed that she was playing three roles in "The Shrouds": The wife of Cassel's character, the sister of the wife, and "an avatar, a sort of personal assistant". She added that it's about grief and probably the “most personal film of Cronenberg’s career”, hinting that it’s actually about the recent passing of the filmmaker’s wife.

Howard Shore will be composing the music for Cronenberg’s latest. Shore (“The Lord of the Rings”) has composed many of Cronenberg’s films over the last four decades, including “The Fly”, “Videodrome,” “Dead Ringers”, and “A History of Violence.”

Cronenberg’s last film was 2022’s “Crimes of the Future,” which also competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. I loved that film. It almost felt like a career capper, a meditative work that encompassed all of the obsessions Cronenberg tackled in his 50-year career.