Brandon Cronenberg is heading into deep space. The Canadian filmmaker — known for his cerebral body-horrors Antiviral, Possessor, and Infinity Pool — has secured production funding from Telefilm Canada for his long-gestating fourth feature, Dragons. First announced in the wake of Antiviral, the project has been dormant for years. Now, with Cronenberg’s rising reputation and a bigger budget, it’s officially back on track.
Described as a 'space-horror', the film imagines a near future where humanity harvests ancient, drifting alien lifeforms and processes their biochemistry into a potent, mind-altering drug — referred to ominously as the 'opiate of the masses'. The story follows a captain and her crew as they traverse uncharted regions of space to hunt these creatures, known as 'dragons', hoping the trade will buy them a better life.
Cronenberg has teamed up with Marvel Comics veteran Dan Abnett on the screenplay. Abnett, who co-created the 2008 version of Guardians of the Galaxy, brings a rich background in science fiction world-building to the collaboration — a promising addition to Cronenberg’s stark, often surreal visual language.
No production date has been announced yet, but with funding in place and a concept that blends philosophical dread with interstellar spectacle, Dragons looks set to be Cronenberg’s most ambitious and expansive film yet. It may be set in the future, but it’s been a long time coming.
