I don’t know whether to cringe in terror or laugh out loud at this one.
David Cronenberg, who has been making edgy movies since the sixties, some of them excellent (like last year’s Eastern Promises), some of them not-so-much (Scanners comes to mine), has decided to do an opera.
That, in itself, is not such a big deal, but it is based on his 1986 remake of The Fly. You remember that one, right? Jeff Goldblum, as scientist Seth Brundle, turned himself into a giant mutant human fly and scared poor Gena Davis half to death.
The opera is supposed to follow the line of the movie but has been re-imagined into the 1950s. Maybe that’s to explain Brundle’s horrible taste in clothes. Of course, he doesn’t have to worry about what he is wearing for most of the opera. It’s either filthy rags, as the monster, or nothing at all, when he crawls in and out of the teleportation device he invents. That's going to get a little chilly on stage.
The Fly: The Opera (or whatever they are calling it) is supposed to premier in September in Los Angeles. I wonder if they’re handing out free tickets yet?
