There’s no denying that director David Cronenberg is a wholly original filmmaker, but his signature style doesn’t always translate to box office success.  As such, it came as quite a pleasant surprise recently when the director was interested in making both a sequel to his 2007 crime drama Eastern Promises and a remake of his seminal 1986 sci-fi classic The Fly.  Just as both projects seemed to be on track, Cronenberg abruptly broke the news that neither was going to happen because the respective studios decided they weren’t interested in making the films.  Though Eastern Promises 2 and Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly may never come to fruition, the filmmaker recently provided a few details regarding what we would have seen if the projects had made it to production.  Hit the jump for more.

As recently as June, we posted that David Cronenberg was returning to direct Eastern Promises 2, starring Viggo Mortensen and possibly Vincent Cassel.  While things looked to be moving ahead in a positive direction only a short while ago, the production has taken a turn for the worse (or better if you weren’t looking forward to the sequel).  Apparently, the decision has come down from the Focus Features studio to scrap the project, even though production was scheduled to begin in October.  Hit the jump to hear the explanation on the about face from Cronenberg himself. 

It appears that the Eastern Promises sequel that’s been brewing for the last few years is finally happening.  Director David Cronenberg’s 2007 crime drama was extremely well received upon release, and talk then turned to a possible sequel with star Viggo Mortensen returning.  As early as last November Cronenberg was talking about the positive chances of a sequel happening, and now it appears that things are moving full-speed ahead.  However, Cronenberg apparently won’t be returning as director this time.  Vulture reports that not only is co-star Vincent Cassel in negotiations to return for the follow-up, but screenwriter Steven Knight will be taking over the director’s chair.  Hit the jump for more.

[Update: Vulture has corrected their report to say that Cronenberg will indeed direct the sequel, not Knight]

Last month, we received confirmation that David Cronenberg had written a sequel to his 1986 classic horror film, The Fly.  At the time, Cronenberg explained “The Fly is not exactly a remake, it’s sort of a sequel, kinda. Yeah, that was a thing. I’ve written a script of that, and I don’t know if that’s going to really happen, but that has to do with Fox.”  According to The Playlist, Fox has made their decision and that decision is to pass on the movie.  This doesn’t mean Fox won’t remake The Fly at some point, but if they do, it probably won’t be with Cronenberg.  On the one hand, it frees him up to visit new territory, but it also opens the door that some hacky director could come in and deliver a pointless new version (e.g. The Thing).

However, Cronenberg isn’t moving on to completely new material.  Hit the jump for an update on Eastern Promises 2.

If there’s one sequel I could get completely behind, it would certainly be one for Eastern Promises, especially since all the key components seem to be coming together for the second go-round.

Indeed, Deadline is reporting the as-yet-untitled sequel will be a reunion of star Viggo Mortensen, director David Cronenberg and scribe Steven Knight, who wrote the script for the engaging original. The only things missing so far are Naomi Watts and any mention of just what direction this new gangster tale from London’s extremely seedy underbelly will take.

The film is set up at Focus Features with hopes to begin filming next winter, so definitely stay tuned for more details about this as we get them, and hit the jump to find out what else frequent collaborators Cronenberg and Mortensen are up to.

Viggo Mortensen has consistently earned acclaim for his work in a wide range of films, including most recently Eastern Promises, A History of Violence and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 2008, he starred again with and was directed by Ed Harris in Appaloosa.

We sat down with him this past weekend to talk about his new movie, The Road, the highly anticipated big screen adaptation of the beloved, best-selling Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote No Country for Old Men. Mortensen leads an all-star cast featuring Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce and young newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee in this epic post-apocalyptic tale of the survival of a father (Mortensen) and his young son (Smit-McPhee) as they journey across a barren America that was destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm.

Directed by John Hillcoat, The Road is an adventure story, a horror story, a road movie and ultimately a love story between a father and his son and a man and his wife. It’s also a celebration of the inextinguishable will to live, a thrilling evocation of human endurance and an unflinching examination of people at their worst – and at their best.  Read our interview with this great actor after the jump: