Todd Lincoln talks his once planned version of The Fly

Last Updated on July 22, 2021

It's no secret that Todd Lincoln was once attached to revisit the wonderfully weird world of THE FLY, which got started with Kurt Neumann’s 1958 classic starring Vincent price and then was subsequently followed by a couple of sequels before landing in David Cronenberg's lap. In speaking with Collider about his segment in V/H/S: VIRAL, “Gorgeous Vortex”, Lincoln spilled some new details on his version of THE FLY that almost was. While he shies away from any concrete story details, he offers up some insight on the approach he was taking with the film and how it was going to be far from both Neumann's original and Cronenberg's remake. He also spoke to us about THE FLY in our recent interview HERE.

“My version was way outside the box conceptually and visually,” said Lincoln. “Not at all what people would be expecting. It was a strange mix of influences such as Val Lewton, Neal Stephenson, Alan Pakula, Todd Haynes, Chris Cunningham, Michael Crichton, various horror manga, and a touch of something you might find in The Animatrix.”

“The film would have been done almost entirely with practical effects. My story had very little in common with Kurt Neumann’s original The Fly or David Cronenberg’s remake. Both of those are classics so there’s no point in touching them. You have to go a completely new direction while still making it feel like a Fly story at its core and respecting the history of the franchise. Who becomes a fly… how they become a fly…. and what happens… was all completely different in my take.”

“Ultimately, I don’t think it was the right time for it to be made. The script was not all the way there, and audiences were not ready for where we were headed. I would approach it differently now. And while I’d certainly be open to revisiting The Fly someday, I’d also love to see Fox let Cronenberg make the sequel that he scripted. If you love movies, why would you not green light that??”

A practical effects driven horror film, THE FLY or otherwise, is always welcome in my book, so it’s too bad we couldn’t see what Lincoln had conjured up. Who knows, maybe someday?