More than 20 years after directing Jeff Goldblum in The Fly, Cronenberg has decided to make an operatic version of the classic horror.

'I've never directed an opera before and thought it might be quite fun,' Cronenberg tells ScreenDaily.com. The director is in San Sebastian to promote his latest film Eastern Promises, starring Viggo Mortensen, which opened the festival today after its world premiere at Toronto earlier this month.

The opera will see Cronenberg team up with the original composer of The Fly Howard Shore, the writer George Langelaan and famous opera singer Placido Domingo. The production will consist of a chorus, a 75-piece orchestra and three characters: a tenor, a baritone and a mezzo-soprano.

The opera is due to open in Paris on July 1, 2008 before moving to Los Angeles sometime in September 2008.

Speaking at the press conference for Eastern Promises this morning, Cronenberg explained why he uses such explicit violence in the film and where he got his inspiration from.

'The film is about gangsters and so violence is an ever present physical reality. Plus it is only actually a small part of the film, it's just that the scenes happen to be very graphic and so stick in the mind,' Cronenberg explained. 'When researching the film we looked into the tattoo subculture of Russian prisoners and read Mark Of Cain, as well as Dostoyevsky to understand the dark, fatalistic soul of Russia.'

Both Cronenberg and Mortensen, also in attendance at San Sebastian, are hopeful the film will be well received at the festival and possibly even be an awards season contender.

'I won't like Viggo if he doesn't win an Oscar,' Cronenberg joked.

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