Brandon Cronenberg says he never set out to follow in famous father's footsteps

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Filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg says he and his famous father find it “hilarious” to both have features debuting at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

TORONTO - Comparisons were inevitable, and so first-time filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg says he steeled himself for the worst.

The 32-year-old director heads to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival this week where he will make his big-screen debut with the dark comedy "Antiviral."

It's an auspicious coming-out that coincides with a new film from director dad David Cronenberg, who heads to Cannes with his sexy thriller "Cosmopolis," starring "Twilight" heart-throb Robert Pattinson.

The younger Cronenberg says the two find it "hilarious" to both be unspooling films at the star-studded spectacle, but the newcomer admits that sharing the spotlight with his famous father is a double-edged sword.

"One of the weird parts about having a well-known last name is that you can never be sure, at any given moment in your life, to what degree and also in what way, that might be affecting you," Cronenberg said in Toronto before crossing the pond Wednesday, nevertheless adding that he sees little value in worrying about his name's impact.

The low-key auteur says he steered clear of filmmaking until his 20s, musing instead on a career as a writer, musician or illustrator. He was 24 before he committed himself to his father's craft, which he believed would knit together his scattered interests.

Given his father's indelible take on sci-fi, horror, sex and psychosis, it's only natural that Cronenberg would expect an uphill battle to establish his own name in film. But he says he's been pleasantly surprised.

"I was expecting it to be a lot weirder, I was expecting people to be pretty hostile," he says of the reaction to "Antiviral," itself a satirical mash-up of horror, sci-fi and pop culture themes. "But in general it's been a pretty positive experience."

"Antiviral" will screen as part of the Un Certain Regard sidebar, which showcases the work of emerging talents. The program will also feature Quebec's Xavier Dolan, whose francophone feature "Laurence Anyways" traces the tortured love life of a man who decides to have a sex change.

David Cronenberg will compete for the coveted Palme d'Or with his thriller, "Cosmopolis," based on the Don DeLillo novel about a young billionaire whose world unravels as he crosses New York City in a limousine.

Meanwhile, Montreal-based Chloe Robichaud competes for a short film Palme d'Or with her 13-minute tale, "Herd Leader" (Chef de meute).

Brandon Cronenberg describes his debut feature as a romantic comedy that offers a dark take on celebrity obsession.

It stars Caleb Landry Jones as Syd March, a man who sells the viruses of sick celebrities to obsessed fans.

When Syd is infected with a mystery disease that kills beautiful star Hannah Geist, played by Sarah Gadon, it doesn't take long for the bug to spread rapidly and violently through his body. Meanwhile, rabid fans and collectors make it clear they'll do anything to obtain samples for themselves.

Cronenberg says the story is inspired by a bad flu he caught as a first-year film student at Ryerson University. That sent his mind spinning into how he had caught the illness from someone else, and how a rabid fan might seek out such a perverse connection to their idol.

And when it comes to celebrity obsession, Cronenberg agrees that he may have a bit of an inside track on the phenomenon.

"I do have a bit of insight into that — I mean I have sort of seen that from both sides to a certain extent," he says. "I definitely stole some material from those experiences."

That includes the myriad accounts of "Twi-hards" and paparazzi that followed Pattinson while he shot "Cosmopolis" in Toronto last summer.

Cronenberg says he added a celebrity dog to his film after hearing that Pattinson's dog was stalked by admirers.

Critics and cinephiles get their first look at "Antiviral" in Cannes, but the subject matter has already loose drawn comparisons to David Cronenberg's early body-horror work, which includes the 1975 parasite chiller "Shivers."

Brandon Cronenberg says any similarities are inadvertent.

"I wasn't deliberately trying to make a body-horror film or to relate it to my father's work," says Cronenberg, who says "Antiviral" is not a straight horror film.

"I think he influenced me more by being my father, we share genes, and he helped raise me and so I think in that way more than in any other way I was influenced by him."

The Cannes Film Festival runs until May 27.