Ask a random person what their favorite Jeff Goldblum role is and chances are they’ll either tell you it’s Dr. Ian Malcolm in the Jurassic Park movies or Seth Brundle in The Fly. So, if one of those two eccentric scientists can make a return in the new Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, perhaps it’s not so absurd to think that we could one day see Goldblum again in some future remake or reboot of David Cronenberg’s body horror classic.
After all, the actor recently said he’d be open to the idea of revisiting the series that once brought us the grotesque and heartrending Brundlefly, revealing the following in a recent interview:
I don’t think my character would be involved because of course I got tragically mutated with the fly and then the machine, oh boy…But maybe I show up as a grandchild of the original Seth Brundle, or Seth Brundle had a brother. Had a brother that emerges in some ways! Who knows, I don’t know but David Cronenberg was a thrill to work with. Boy, if he was involved I’d like to work with him again, I’ll tell you that.
The 1986 version of The Fly – itself a remake of the 1958 sci-fi of the same name – only had one solitary, unloved sequel almost thirty years ago, but there’ve been multiple efforts since then to resurrect the property, with Cronenberg himself even in talks with Fox earlier this decade. Though his efforts seemingly came to no avail, the director did adapt the film into an opera in 2008, which Goldblum takes as an appealing sign that “people seem to still have fun doing something with that material.”
The latest director we heard was eyeing The Fly is Sleight helmsman J.D. Dillard, who was reportedly in negotiations with Fox just over a year ago. Whether anything will come of that remains to be seen, but it certainly won’t be the last we hear of attempts to bring back this gruesome yet poignant property. Life finds a way, and based on the endless stream of franchise reboots in recent years, so does Hollywood.