New Movie in the Works Set in David Cronenberg’s The Fly Universe That Won’t Be a Remake

There’s a new The Fly movie in the works, but no, it won’t be a remake, and no, it’s not coming from David Cronenberg.

Deadline broke the actually pretty intriguing news on Monday that Nikyatu Jusu, best known for the well-reviewed 2022 horror film Nanny, is developing a new film based on Cronenberg’s 1986 classic. But, the report stressed, the new project that Jusu wrote and will direct for 20th Century Fox is “set in the universe” of The Fly, rather than being a straightforward remake.

Further plot details, however, are being kept under wraps. As Deadline points out, it’s coming at a time when body horror is having something of a moment; satirical film The Substance has ridden the wave of positive word-of-mouth to bring in $43 million worldwide on a slim reported budget of $17 million.

Cronenberg’s The Fly was based on a 1957 short story and 1958 film, both of the same name, and followed a scientist who started turning into a nasty fly creature after an experiment gone wrong. It starred Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, and carved a place for itself in Hollywood history thanks in large part to its gnarly effects.

Jusu, meanwhile, seems pretty in-demand in the horror department currently. Deadline notes that she’s set to direct a Night of the Living Dead sequel and is in development on a project for Universal/Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw that’s an expansion of her Suicide by Sunlight short film.

We’ll have to wait and learn more about this upcoming The Fly film, but personally, I’m interested (and preemptively grossed out) to see what modern practical effects could conjure up for that universe. For more, check out our breakdown of five brilliant moments of Cronenberg body horror.

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Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.