David Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars” gets the green light!!!

It’s not easy being a Cronenberg lover, so it must be far from simple being David Cronenberg himself. The now septuagenarian filmmaker(he turned 70 last month)has been struggling to cast and finance his latest project for months—what else is new. It must be wonderful to be Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese—or even Michael Bay—and get your work instantly green lit, produced and distributed. It doesn’t work that way for the once-dubbed “Dave Deprave”. Almost 4 years passed between 1999’s “eXistenZ” and 2002’s “Spider”. After that it was another three until 2005’s “A History of Violence”. And then slightly over four is the lengthy gap between 2007’s “Eastern Promises” and 2011’s “A Dangerous Method”. But lately we’ve been catching a bit of a break. Just nine months elapsed from the U.S. release of his Freud/Jung/Spielrein study until 2012’s brilliant economic collapse allegory, “Cosmopolis”. And now it seems that after a recent re-casting(so disappointed upon hearing that Academy Award-winning Rachel Weisz had dropped out of the proposed film), and a series of delays—that “Maps to the Stars” is officially a go! And the cast is a superb one! Returning to Cronenberg country after gaining mucho respect for shunning the “Twilight” crowd to star in David’s stunning “Cosmopolis” is young heart-throb, Robert Pattinson. Also announced, and making her 3rd straight go-round in a Cronenberg film is the delicious Canadian beauty, Sarah Gadon(she was Emma Jung in “A Dangerous Method” and icy Elise Shifrin in “Cosmopolis”). And then the news gets really exciting. Two first-time visitors to a David Cronenberg film, will apparently be the remarkable John Cusack, and 4-time Oscar nominee(as well as recent Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award-winner for HBO’s “Game Change”)Ms. Julianne Moore. The film will be co-financed by Entertainment One Films along with Prospero Pictures. Production is set to begin this coming July in Toronto and Los Angeles. The film is supposed to receive formal announcement at the Cannes Film Festival next month. Fully aware that much can change between now and the as-of-yet undecided release date, but still deliriously ecstatic that it appears that this long in development work has finally been given a go. The 19th entry of The Cronenberg Chronicle will almost certainly appear soon after “Maps to the Stars” hits theaters. Hooray!!!