Brandon Cronenberg Launching Debut Feature ANTIVIRAL

There's a new Cronenberg in town and he looks to be doing the family name proud.

Brandon Cronenberg - son of David - has won notice in recent years with a pair of critically acclaimed short films, 2008's Broken Tulips and 2010's The Camera And Christopher Merk. And building on the success of those films Cronenberg is now in pre-production on his debut feature, Antiviral.

An expansion of themes and ideas from his short Broken Tulips, Antiviral is a biting satire of celebrity culture that takes its cues from the elder Cronenberg's tradition of body horror and the ultra-realistic techno-futurism of latter day William Gibson. The picture is set in a near future world very similar to our own with the exception that celebrity obsession has now reached such a scale that the very famous are striking deals with scientific labs who culture their viral infections and sell them to fans desperate for a more intimate connection to their idols. You want to carry the exact strain of herpes that your favorite pop star is infected with? They can do that.

Hobo With A Shotgun producer Niv Fichman is backing this one, the picture already shooting some early second unit imagery in an around Toronto with principal photography slated to begin in October.