Re-Creative Spotlight: Timothy S. Johnston
In the latest episode of Re-Creative, Mark and I welcome back Timothy S. Johnston, who’s quickly becoming our resident SF monster movie expert. But not just any monster movie — only the best. Having previously dissected John Carpenter’s The Thing for us, Timothy returns to remind us of the brilliance of Canadian director David Cronenberg’s 1986 masterpiece The Fly on the occasion of its 40th-anniversary.
Timothy clearly knows his stuff; he’s come well prepared with a bevy of facts and trivia about the making of The Fly along with a thoughtful analysis of what makes the movie special.
The Inspiration: Body Horror as High Art
Timothy considers The Fly a definite improvement on the original. I’ve never seen the original but have no problem agreeing that Cronenberg’s version—filmed in Toronto—is a superb (if unsettling) piece of filmmaking.
One thing I never got around to mentioning to Mark and Timothy during our conversation was that I was lucky enough to meet David Cronenberg back in 2008, taping an episode of Q for CBC Radio. After the host interviewed Cronenberg, which (if memory serves) was a pre-tape — meaning we recorded the interview a day or two before the actual live show — we sat around chatting with the famous director. I remember him telling us about making The History of Violence. For that movie he’d studied up on a martial arts system called Target Focus Training, employed by the hero of that movie, which I knew a little bit about because someone in the dojo I was training in at the time happened to be super interested in that system.
Cronenberg was super casual and down-to-earth but also a tiny bit threatening, as you can hear in this clip from a “Previously On” promo for the show Q that I made afterward (you’ll hear Cronenberg’s voice right after Phil Collins and right before Jeremy Irons).
(You can also hear the Canadian Indie band Ohbijou in that promo. Love those guys.)
Support Our Guest
Timothy S. Johnston is a lifelong fan of thrillers and science fiction thrillers in both print and film. His greatest desire is to contribute to the genre which has given him so much over the past five decades. He wishes he could personally thank every novelist, screenwriter, filmmaker, director and actor who has ever inspired him to tell great stories. He has been an educator for twenty-five years and a writer for thirty. He lives on planet Earth, but he dreams of the stars. Visit www.timothysjohnston.com to register for news alerts, read his blog and reviews, and learn more about his current and upcoming thrillers. Timothy is the author of The War Beneath, The Savage Deeps, Fatal Depth, An Island of Light, The Shadow of War, and A Blanket of Steel. His futuristic murder mystery/thrillers include The Furnace, The Freezer, and The Void. He has won the 2018 GLOBAL THRILLER Award (Action/Adventure category), the 2016 EPIC Award (Science Fiction), the 2015 CYGNUS Award (Science Fiction Thriller), the 2020 CYGNUS Award (Climate Fiction category), the 2021 GLOBAL THRILLER Award, the 2015 CLUE Award (Blended Mystery category), the 2023 CYGNUS Science Fiction Award Grand Prize, the 2024 CYGNUS Award (Climate Fiction), and the 2024 GLOBAL THRILLER Award Grand Prize. He has been Finalist or Semi-Finalist in other award competitions, and short- or longlisted in others. Follow Timothy on Facebook @TSJAuthor and Twitter @TSJ_Author.
Re-Creative is a co-production of Donovan Street Press Inc. in association with MonkeyJoy Press.
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