Cinematical

Though it's unclear which will come first, a film called Eastern Promises has joined the previously-discussed Map to the Stars on David Cronenberg's list of upcoming projects. Promises is a thriller by Steven Knight, who also wrote 2002's Dirty Pretty Things. According to Variety, Knight's new script treads similar ground, once again visiting the "seamy underside of life" in London, this time through the story of "a young midwife [who is] drawn into investigating the identity of a mysterious Russian girl who dies in childbirth on Christmas Eve." When the girl turns out to be a prostitute who was brought to the country by a sex-trafficking gang, things get a little hairy for the midwife.

The film, budgeted at between $15 and $20 million, is being produced by the group behind the Oscar-nominated Pride & Prejudice. Cronenberg hopes to begin filming this fall, but since he may have to be in the US for Map to the Stars, the new project's schedule is still very much up in the air.