David Cronenberg Says ‘The Shrouds’ Might Be His Final Film

David Cronenberg's “The Shrouds” is finally out, almost a year after it screened at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film received U.S. distribution, courtesy of Janus Films and Sideshow.

In an interview for the LA Times, Cronenberg mentions the possibility that “The Shrouds” might mark the end of his career.

"The world doesn't need my next film," he said, after clarifying that another project would be a certain “arrogance.”

Cronenberg goes on to cite Portuguese filmmaker Manoel De Oliveira —who was still making films at the age of 103 —as "a goal to achieve", but the Canadian filmmaker remains concerned about the limits of his own body — a recurring obsession in his filmography.

"The direction is physical and it really exhausts you," he confided before adding: "We could easily imagine a moment when halfway up a film, we say to ourselves 'I can't take it anymore. I'm not focused enough to be good. I don't even know if I'm going to survive today'.”

Although he thinks he is "in pretty good health" for the moment, Cronenberg explains that he is considering turning back to literature: "I was thinking maybe writing another novel."

Cronenberg clearly has more doubts about his film future than he had back in November, at the Marrakech Film Festival, where he claimed he was not retired, and planned on making another film, potentially based on his own 2014 novel “Consumed.”

Whether he’s retiring, or not, Cronenberg has left a lasting legacy with such films as “Videodrome,” “The Fly,” “Dead Ringers,” and “A History of Violence.”