Cronenberg has cited William S. Burroughs and Vladimir Nabokov as influences.

Cronenberg has said that his films should be seen " from the point of view of the disease ", and that, for example, he identifies with the characters in Shivers after they become infected with the anarchic parasites.

Aside from The Dead Zone ( 1983 ) and The Fly, Cronenberg has not generally worked within the world of big-budget, mainstream Hollywood filmmaking, although he has had occasional near misses.

Cronenberg has collaborated with composer Howard Shore on all of his films since The Brood ( 1979 ), ( see List of noted film director and composer collaborations ) with the exception of The Dead Zone ( 1983 ), which was scored by Michael Kamen.

Since 1988's Dead Ringers, Cronenberg has worked with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky on each of his films ( see List of noted film director and cinematographer collaborations ).

Cronenberg has also appeared as an actor in other directors ' films.

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.

Cronenberg has appeared on various " Greatest Director " lists.

Sheen has worked with a wide variety of film directors, such as Richard Attenborough, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrence Malick, David Cronenberg, Mike Nichols, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone.

Holm has also appeared in two David Cronenberg films, Naked Lunch ( 1991 ) and eXistenZ ( 1999 ) and was Harold Pinter's favourite actor, the playwright once stating: " He puts on my shoe, and it fits!

As a result, Cronenberg has said, Scanners was a nightmare to make.

None of these projects has involved Cronenberg as director.

He also appeared in the 1981 film Scanners, a science fiction / horror film by Canadian director David Cronenberg that has since attained cult film status.

David Cronenberg was surprised when The Fly became embraced as a cultural metaphor for AIDS, since he originally intended the film to be a more general analogy for disease itself, terminal conditions like cancer and, more specifically, the aging process: " If you, or your lover, has AIDS, you watch that film and of course you'll see AIDS in it, but you don't have to have that experience to respond emotionally to the movie and I think that's really its power ; This is not to say that AIDS didn't have an incredible impact on everyone and of course after a certain point people were seeing AIDS stories everywhere so I don't take any offense that people see that in my movie.

Whereas the 1958 original was followed by two sequels, Cronenberg has said that the stories in his films have definitive beginnings and endings, and he has never considered making a sequel to one of his own films, although others have made sequels to Cronenberg films, including Scanners ( 1981 ).

In addition, McCann has worked with such legendary directors as Sidney Lumet, Ken Russell, David Green, Paul Schrader and David Cronenberg.

Campbell has also worked extensively with David Cronenberg, appearing in such films as Naked Lunch, The Dead Zone, Fast Company, and The Brood.

The world-reconned Plier-Company Knipex has its headquarter in Cronenberg.

In 2008, Cronenberg directed Howard Shore's first opera, The Fly.

In the 1992 book Cronenberg on Cronenberg, he revealed that The Brood was inspired by events that occurred during the unraveling of his first marriage, which caused both Cronenberg and his daughter Cassandra a great deal of turmoil.

The first film he scored that was not directed by Cronenberg was Martin Scorsese's After Hours.

At the time The Brood was developed, Cronenberg fought for custody of his daughter from his first marriage.

This was the first Cronenberg film to be scored by Howard Shore, and is also Shore's first film score.

As a young man, Cronenberg attended the University of Toronto ; first studying science, but eventually gaining his degree in Literature.

Their first choice was David Cronenberg, but he was working on an adaptation of Total Recall for Dino De Laurentiis and was unable to accept.

The first of his features for which Cronenberg did not originate the screenplay, Fast Company brought Cronenberg into contact with cinematographer Mark Irwin, art director Carol Spier, sound editor Bryan Day, and film editor Ronald Sanders, all of whom became regular crew members on his films.

Cronenberg remains a staunchly Canadian filmmaker, with nearly all of his films ( including major studio vehicles The Dead Zone and The Fly ) having been filmed in his home province Ontario.

Most of his films have been at least partially financed by Telefilm Canada, and Cronenberg is a vocal supporter of government-backed film projects, saying " Every country needs system of government Grant ( money ) | grants in order to have a national cinema in the face of Hollywood ".

Because of the oddities of Canada's film financing structures at the time, it was necessary to begin shooting with only two weeks ' pre-production work, before the screenplay had been completed, with Cronenberg writing the script between 4 a. m. and 7 a. m. each morning throughout shooting.

In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, " Had Mr. Cronenberg settled simply for horror, as John Carpenter did in his classic Halloween ( though not in his not-so-classic The Fog ), Scanners might have been a Grand Guignol treat.

David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC ( born March 15, 1943 ) is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Cronenberg was the son of Esther ( born Sumberg ), a musician, and Milton Cronenberg, a writer and editor.

After two short sketch films and two short art-house features ( the black and white Stereo and the colour Crimes of the Future ) Cronenberg went into partnership with Ivan Reitman.

Cronenberg stated that while writing the screenplay for Naked Lunch, he felt a moment of synergy with the writing style of Burroughs.

Of his characters ' transformations, Cronenberg said, " But because of our necessity to impose our own structure of perception on things we look on ourselves as being relatively stable.

In 2005, Cronenberg would say that he was upset that Paul Haggis had chosen the same name for his Academy Award winning film Crash, feeling it was " stupid " and " very disrespectful.

Cronenberg also worked for nearly a year on a version of Total Recall but experienced " creative differences " with producers Dino De Laurentiis and Ronald Shusett.

A fan of Philip K. Dick, author of " We Can Remember it For You Wholesale ," the short story upon which the film was based, Cronenberg related ( in the biography / overview of his work, Cronenberg on Cronenberg ) that 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 the late 1990s, Cronenberg was announced as director of a sequel to another Verhoeven film, Basic Instinct, but this also fell through.

Other regular collaborators include actor Robert Silverman, art director Carol Spier, sound editor Bryan Day, film editor Ronald Sanders, his sister, costume designer Denise Cronenberg, and, from 1979 until 1988, cinematographer Mark Irwin.

Suschitzky was the director of photography for The Empire Strikes Back, and Cronenberg remarked that Suschitzky's work in that film " was the only one of those movies that actually looked good ", which was a motivating factor to work with him on Dead Ringers.

Having worked with many Hollywood stars, Cronenberg says that he did not get to make a film with an actor he wanted to work with for a long time, Burt Reynolds.