Existenz

Existenz (stylized as eXistenZ) is a 1999 Canadian science fiction body horror film, written, produced, and directed by Canadian director David Cronenberg. It stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law.

As in Videodrome (1983), Cronenberg gives his psychological statement about how humans react and interact with the technologies that surround them, in this case, the world of video games.

Unlike Videodrome, the movie is somewhat lame in its execution and tame in what it implies about our future relations with reality-changing technology.

They say on other websites, they do, that the film's plot came about after director Cronenberg conducted an interview with Salman Rushdie for Shift magazine in 1995. At the time, Rushdie was in hiding due to a Fatwa being put on his life by Muslim extremists due to his controversial book The Satanic Verses. Rushdie's dilemma gave Cronenberg an idea of "a Fatwa against a virtual-reality game designer". Existenz was originally pitched to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but they did not green-light the film due to its complex structure.