EXCLUSIVE: Filming is to begin on May 8 in Toronto on David Cronenberg’s next movie, The Shrouds, which will star Vincent Cassel (La Haine), Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), and Guy Pearce (Memento).

Kruger has replaced Léa Seydoux on the project (as first noted by blog World Of Reel). Cassel, star of Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method, has been aboard since the project was first revealed last summer.

French icon Cassel will play Karsh, an innovative businessman and grieving widower, who builds a novel device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud. This burial tool installed at his own state-of-the-art – though controversial – cemetery allows him and his clients to watch their specific departed loved one decompose in real time. Karsh’s revolutionary business is on the verge of breaking into the international mainstream when several graves within his cemetery are vandalized and nearly destroyed, including that of his wife. While he struggles to uncover a clear motive for the attack, the mystery of who wrought this havoc, and why, drive him to reevaluate his business, marriage and fidelity to his late wife’s memory, as well as push him to new beginnings.

FilmNation and CAA Media Finance were announced as handling sales during the last Cannes market but are no longer aboard. Distribution is now being handled by SBS International, the sales arm of producer Saïd Ben Saïd (Elle), who is producing with Martin Katz for Prospero Pictures. The duo previously produced Cronenberg’s Maps To The Stars.

Crash and The Fly filmmaker Cronenberg was at Cannes last year with thriller Crimes Of The Future, starring Viggo Mortensen, Kristen Stewart and Seydoux. The film was released by Neon stateside but failed to ignite at the box office, managing $2.4M domestic.

Black Swan and La Haine star Cassel most recently was seen in HBO’s Westworld and Apple TV+’s Liaison and has The Three Musketeers upcoming. National Treasure, Troy and Inglourious Basterds actress Kruger recently starred in Roku series Swimming with Sharks and has a raft of projects in production, including Fatih Akin’s Marlene Dietrich series.

Memento, LA Confidential and The Hurt Locker actor Pearce recently starred in MGM and Britbox drama series A Spy Among Friends and starred last year with Liam Neeson in action film Memory.

Kruger is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment, UBBA, Altitude, and Peikoff Mahan. Pearce is represented by CAA, Independent, Shanahan Management, and Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern. Cassel is repped by Range Media Partners and Agence Adequat.