After pulling together an exciting young cast (and Malcolm McDowell), we now have our first look via Twitch at Brandon Cronenberg's "Antiviral," a fascinating sci-fi pic that will surely do his father proud.
Caleb Landry Jones ("X-Men: First Class") stars as a salesman for a clinic that replicates celebrity diseases for public consumption, who himself becomes obsessed with a celebrity and injects himself with her disease, then must figure out how to cure it before time runs out. The younger Cronenberg also wrote the film, which has Sarah Gadon, Douglas Smith, Matt Watts, James Cade and McDowell all co-starring. Here's an extended synopsis:
Antiviral follows Syd March, an employee at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans. Biological communion – for a price. Syd also supplies illegal samples of these viruses to piracy groups, smuggling them from the clinic in his own body. When he becomes infected with the disease that kills super sensation Hannah Geist, Syd becomes a target for collectors and rabid fans. He must unravel the mystery surrounding her death before he suffers the same fate.
Lensing is taking place in Toronto at the moment, which may be setting it on a path to premiere at the city's film festival next year.