From the Mind of Brandon Cronenberg

Antiviral

  • Caleb Landry Jones

    Syd March - Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, 21-year-old Caleb Landry Jones is in the vanguard of emerging young actors. He co-starred opposite James MacAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult in the blockbuster X-Men: First Class. Caleb stars opposite Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi and Ben Foster in Universal’s Contraband, the English language remake of the 2008 Icelandic film Reykjavic-Rotterdam. Among his other film credits are Summer Song, a New York Times praised performance in The Last Exorcism and the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men. As the male lead in Neil Jordan’s new film Byzantium opposite Saorsie Ronan, Gemma Arterton and Sam Riley, Caleb plays a young man dying of leukemia and struggling with his mortality. Caleb was featured in the “Young Hollywood” issues of both VMAN and Teen Vogue.

  • Sarah Gadon

    Hannah Geist - In 2010, the luminous Sarah Gadon had the privilege of working with three legendary filmmakers. She was featured in Jim Sheridan’s Dream House starring Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts and Rachel Weisz. For David Cronenberg, she played Emma Jung in A Dangerous Method starring Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender. In Mary Harron’s horror film The Moth Diaries, she co-starred with Scott Speedman. David Cronenberg cast Sarah in Cosmopolis starring Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche. The film will have its world premiere at Cannes 2012.

    Sarah’s recent television credits include World Without End, an international co-production based on Ken Follett’s novel, Murdoch Mysteries (2009-2011), Happy Town (2010), Being Erica (2010) and The Border (2008-2009).

    When not on set, Sarah is working towards her degree in Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto.

  • Malcolm McDowell

    Dr. Abendroth - Malcolm McDowell is arguably among the most dynamic and inventive of world-class actors, yet also one capable of immense charm, humor and poignancy.

    McDowell has created a gallery of iconographic characters since catapulting to the screen as Mick Travis, the rebellious upperclassman in Lindsay Anderson’s prize-winning sensation If…

    His place in movie history was subsequently secured when Stanley Kubrick finally found the actor he was searching for to play the gleefully amoral Alex in A Clockwork Orange, when McDowell himself conceived the idea for Mick Travis’ further adventures in Anderson’s Candide-like masterpiece, O Lucky Man!, and when he wooed Mary Steenburgen and defeated Jack the Ripper as the romantically inquisitive H.G. Wells in Time After Time.

    Those legendary roles are among the ones that have endured with legions of filmgoers while new adherents have been won over by his tyrannical Soran (who destroys Capt. Kirk) in Star Trek: Generations; his Machiavellian Mr. Roarke in Fantasy Island and his comically pompous professor Steve Pynchon in the critically hailed CBS television series, Pearl, starring opposite Rhea Perlman.

    For his motion picture work, the American Cinemateque honored him with a retrospective in June 2001, highlighted by showings of his electrifying performances in two major works. The first is Paul McGuigan’s Gangster No.1, in which McDowell and Paul Bettany portray the consumed, driven title character and which affords McDowell the chance to create a character both on screen and through nuanced voice-over. The second is Russian director Karen Chakhnazarov’s acclaimed and rarely seen Assassin of the Tsar, which Vincent Canby called “a remarkable mystical and psychological exploration of the murder of the Romanov family”. About McDowell’s performance as the conflicted Yurovsky, the man who carried out the crime, The New York Times said, “Not since reaching his mature years has McDowell given such a fine, strong, crafty performance. It is acted with immense skill.”

    McDowell’s distinctive motion picture characterizations include: Richard Lester’s Royal Flash, Paul Schrader’s Cat People, Rachel Talalay’s Tank Girl, Joseph Losey’s Figures in a Landscape, Bryan Forbes’ The Raging Moon and the Chaplinesque studio boss in Blake Edwards’ Sunset.

    His film credits are further highlighted by his compellingly sinister Caligula; the brilliant literary editor Maxwell Perkins in Martin Ritt’s Cross Creek; his cameo in Robert Altman’s The Player; and his final incarnation of Mick Travis in Britannia Hospital, the third film in Anderson’s trilogy marking the disintegration of British culture. McDowell’s film work also includes Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, In Good Company, I Spy, Robert Altman’s The Company; Robert Downey Sr.’s Hugo Pool with Sean Penn, Robert Downey Jr. and Cathy Moriarty; Just Visiting,

    Mr. Magoo, Hugh Hudson’s My Life So Far, Blue Thunder, Neil Marshall’s Doomsday in 2007, Rob Zombie’s Halloween I & II, and the voice of villain, Dr. Calic, in Disney’s 2008 box office hit Bolt. 13

    Malcolm featured in the Oscar- winning silent film The Artist. In 2012, he will be seen in Amy Heckerling’s Vamps with Sigourney Weaver and Alicia Silverstone and Silent Hill 2.

    On television, McDowell has continued having recurring appearances as Terence on the hit HBO series Entourage, as Linderman on NBC’s Heroes, and as Bret Stiles on the hit show The Mentalist. In summer of 2011, Malcolm starred in his own show, TNT’s newest series Franklin & Bash, as Stanton Infeld. Franklin & Bash’s debut success and high ratings, sent the show into a second season pick- up.

  • Douglas Smith

    Edward Porris - Douglas Smith is best known for his starring role as Ben Henrickson on HBO’s critically acclaimed series Big Love, starring Bill Paxton and Jeanne Tripplehorn. He has also starred in the indie film Remember the Daze, opposite Amber Heard, Leighton Meester and Lyndsy Fonseca, MGM’s Sleepover, opposite Alexa Vega and Jane Lynch, Brett Ratner’s Santa’s Slay, opposite Emilie de Ravin, and the horror film Hangman’s Curse, opposite Leighton Meester.

    The exciting young actor stars in the soon-to-be-released feature The Boy Who Smells Like Fish opposite Zoe Kravitz. Douglas is also starring in the new Percy Jackson movie, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, currently in production in Vancouver. As well a managing a full acting slate, Douglas is currently developing feature film scripts.

  • Brandon Cronenberg

    Writer/Director

    Antiviral is Brandon Cronenberg’s debut feature film. His previous short films The Camera and Christopher Merk and Broken Tulips have done very well on the film festival scene. The Camera and Christopher Merk had its premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, followed by screenings at the 2010 Cinéfest Sudbury Film Festival and the 2010 New Hampshire Film Festival. Broken Tulips had its premiere at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival’s Student Film Showcase, followed by screenings at Air Canada’s 2008 enRoute Student Film Festival and the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival’s Sprockets Festival. Broken Tulips won awards for Best Director through the enRoute Student Film Festival and the HSBC Filmmaker Award for Best Screenplay.

    After its North American Premiere at 2012 Toronto International Film Festival,Antiviral is the co-winner of ’The SKYY Vodka Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film‘, for emerging filmmakers which carries a cash prize of $15,000.

    Antiviral has also just premiered at the Calgary International Film Festival on the Black carpet and the Vancouver International Film Festival and will be in theatres on October 12, 2012.