Unrealized projects
One of Cronenberg's earliest unproduced film concepts was Roger Pagan, Gynecologist, about a neurotic man who impersonates a medical expert. The project was initially conceived in the early 1970s in the form of a novel.
In the early 1980s Cronenberg attempted to make a film adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein that took place in the modern day. Cronenberg wrote an original script for Universal after Videodrome titled Six Legs, but the film was never made, although aspects were incorporated into The Fly and Naked Lunch.
Since the 1980s, Cronenberg had planned on directing a film called Red Cars, about the 1961 Grand Prix automobile race won by Phil Hill. Unable to receive funding for the project, he adapted his screenplay in the form of an artbook, published in 2005.
Cronenberg was offered the role of director for Witness while it was under the name Come Home, but declined as he "could never be a fan of the Amish". He was also offered the director's position for Return of the Jedi, Flashdance, Top Gun, and Beverly Hills Cop. Marc Boyman offered Cronenberg the position of director for The Incubus, but declined although this led to Boyman producing The Fly and Dead Ringers.
Cronenberg worked for nearly a year on a version of Total Recall (1990), but had creative differences with producers Dino De Laurentiis and Ronald Shusett; a different version of the film was eventually made by Paul Verhoeven. Cronenberg related in his 1992 memoir, Cronenberg on Cronenberg that, as a fan of Philip K. Dick—author of "We Can Remember it For You Wholesale", the short story upon which the film was based— his dissatisfaction with what he envisioned the film to be and what it ended up being pained him so greatly that, for a time, he suffered a migraine just thinking about it, akin to a needle piercing his eye.
In 1993, Cronenberg signed a deal with Paragon Entertainment Corporation in which he would create a six-part television series called Crimes Against Nature for CBC Television. Cronenberg described the series as "William Burroughs meets Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville." He started writing it on August 1, and filming was meant to begin in February 1994 using 35 mm film. The show was set in 2010 and was about members of the "Flesh Squad" police force. Carol Reynolds, the president of Paragon Entertainment, stated that each episode would cost between $500,000-600,000.
In the mid-1990s, he was attached to direct a version of American Psycho, with a screenplay adaptation by the author himself Bret Easton Ellis and with Brad Pitt starring in the role of Patrick Bateman. Cronenberg's vision of the film would have concluded with a musical number involving Barry Manilow's "Daybreak" and Bateman on the World Trade Center.
In 1998, author Patricia Anthony stated that Cronenberg would direct the adaptation of her novel Brother Termite written by John Sayles, and to be executive produced by James Cameron. The premise follows an alien race that co-exists with man on Earth, influencing human society.
In 1999, Cronenberg was reportedly interested in taking the helm of Charlie Kaufman's adaptation of Confessions of Dangerous Mind, with Sean Penn at that time circling to star. The following year, he was circling to direct Basic Instinct 2 for which he had a "good script" and Rupert Everett in the lead, but MGM said no because the actor is gay. At one stage, Cronenberg was going to make The Singing Detective as a horror film, with Al Pacino starring. In 2004, Cronenberg was attached to direct London Fields, based on Martin Amis' 1991 novel of the same name.
In the mid-2000s, Cronenberg had adapted and was planning to direct an adaptation of The White Hotel by D. M. Thomas.
For a time it appeared that, as Eastern Promises producer Paul Webster told Screen International, a sequel was in the works that would reunite the key team of Cronenberg, Steven Knight, and Viggo Mortensen. It was slated for production by Webster's new company Shoebox Films in collaboration with Focus Features, and shot in early 2013. In 2012, Cronenberg said the Eastern Promises sequel had fallen through due to budget disagreement with Focus Features.
In 2010, it was announced that Cronenberg would be directing an adaptation of As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem. The following year, Media Rights Capital picked up the project, with Bruce Wagner set to write the script.
In the October 2011 edition of Rue Morgue, Cronenberg stated that he has written a companion piece to his 1986 remake of The Fly, which he would like to direct if given the chance. He has stated that it is not a traditional sequel, but rather a "parallel story".
In March 2012, Media Rights Capital announced that Cronenberg would be directing and executive producing the television pilot Knifeman, adapted by Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald from Wendy Moore's 2005 novel about a radical surgeon who goes to extraordinary lengths to uncover secrets of the human body.
As of 2022, Cronenberg was working to turn his novel Consumed into his next film.
