Everyone Into The Plasma Pool!

I’m very excited to see that, at long last, there’s going to be a 2-disc special edition of David Cronenberg’s The Fly.

I figured this was in the cards ever since I read that the disc that paired it with its execrable sequel, The Fly 2, was going to be deleted. But it’s great to see confirmation of it, along with a list of promising extras. With Videodrome, Dead Ringers, and Naked Lunch having already received the special edition treatment (all from Criterion, by the way), it seemed a real oversight that the same attention wasn’t being paid to one of Cronenberg’s seminal works and that it was left languishing on a cheapo double-bill DVD with one of the worst sequels ever conceived.

Have I conveyed how I feel about The Fly 2 yet?

Actually, the remarkable thing here is that they’re giving the same 2-disc treatment to the sequel! How in the world anyone could think it deserves to live on as anything more than a trailer is beyond me. And even then…

But we’ll have a Fly special edition at last. Good news for anyone who’s been a fan of this most melancholy of horror films, unless you count Dead Ringers as “horror.” Speaking of which, its Criterion disc disappeared from shelves years ago and was finally replaced a week ago with a new disc that features an entirely new commentary from star Jeremy Irons. Best of all is the news that the problems with the musical soundtrack, evident on the Criterion disc, seem to have been fixed, at least according to one Amazon reviewer.

Look for the new Fly disc in the fall, no doubt around the time Cronenberg’s latest film, A History Of Violence, is released. The changes that I’ve read about that he’s made to the original graphic novel don’t sound like anything major and it seems to have gotten great reaction at Cannes this year. Still, I can’t imagine how he’s going to manage the big money shot/twist towards the end (you’ll see what I mean). It’s strong stuff, even for jaded moviegoers who think they’ve seen it all.

Now all we need is the release of M. Butterfly on DVD, the reinstatement of the commentary that was lost when Crash made the jump from Criterion laserdisc to ordinary DVD, and the premiere of Howard Shore’s Fly opera (honest). The scores he’s written for Cronenberg’s films rank amongst my very favorite, especially Naked Lunch and Crash. What will result when he attempts to genetically mate The Fly with Opera is anyone’s guess. Call it Brundlieder!