Great news! Map to the Stars is a go! Cronenberg and Pattinson will once again be working with Entertainment One, which produced Cosmopolis. Deadlinebroke the news is morning
Canadian giant Entertainment One will team with Martin Katz’s Prospero Pictures to back David Cronenberg’s upcoming ensemble thriller Maps To The Stars. Julianne Moore, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson and Sarah Gadon are to star in the ghost story that’s described as a scathing attack on celebrity-obsessed LA. The script is by Wild Palms‘ Bruce Wagner.
EOne will also handle worldwide sales, which it plans to launch in Cannes next month, and distribute in the U.S., Canada, the UK and Australia/NZ. Production starts in July in Toronto and LA. This is Cronenberg and Katz’s fourth collaboration. Katz and SBS Films’ Saïd Ben Saïd are producing. Sentient Entertainment’s Renee Tab, Cronenberg’s manager, will exec produce. EOne’s Benedict Carver is also exec producing and will oversee for the studio. Integral Films’ Alfred Hurmer is co-producing.
Our good friend Laura over at Mission Blacklist France has an exclusive interview with the films screenwriter, Dylan Kussman. Here are some excerpts.
3. Tell us about your work for Mission: Blacklist and how you ended up being a part of this project?
“I became involved with Mission: Blacklist when head writer and Executive Producer Erik Jendresen contacted me about contributing to the project. At the time, he and his co-writer Trace Sheehan were deeply immersed in adapting Staff Sergeant Maddox’s book, Mission: Black List #1, and were looking for an additional voice to help flesh out the main character and structure his remarkable story as a movie. It was an honor to be asked to collaborate with two such accomplished and well-respected writers, on a story with such an incredible pedigree, and I accepted without a moment’s hesitation.”8. What do you think of Robert Pattinson’s choice as the lead man?
“Robert Pattinson is a phenomenal choice. We were all thrilled when he came onboard. More importantly, after spending lengthy one-on-one time with Staff Sergeant Maddox, and getting Maddox’s personal blessing to portray him in the movie … he is the only choice.”9. What can you tell us (that nobody knows yet) about the movie or the project?
“All I can say is, you’ve never seen a story like this one, or experienced an intelligence, military or otherwise, like you will Staff Sergeant Maddox’s in this film. His is truly a remarkable mind; I remain as much in awe of it now as I was after I first read the book, and I remain very proud to have been a small part of the process of bringing the man and his story to the screen”
Read the full interview at Mission: Blacklist France
On being touted as the next Robert Pattinson or being compared to the “Twilight” actor, Max remarked, “There are two sides to every coin. He’s lost a lot of personal freedom. His life is under a microscope. But then again, he’s working on a great movie called ‘The Rover’ at the moment. He has worked with David Cronenberg (‘Cosmopolis’). He’s going to work with him again (‘Maps to the Stars’). That’s all you want as an actor—to keep working with good directors, scripts and actors. The success of ‘Twilight’ has afforded him that privilege. We should all be so lucky.”
The South Australian Film Corporation has a very informative article about Robert Pattinson’s The Rover in which Producer Liz Watts discusses working in the outtback and a possible film release schedule. Here are some excerpts of the article. (Photos were previously released in HQ but are now in UHQ).
Click for UHQ
“SA’s capacity to offer locations both diverse and accessible within cooee of Adelaide and to provide Adelaide Studios as an ideal production base to support the location set, make us an attractive proposition. The Rover production team has tested our capacity to deliver both at the studios and on location and we’ve relished the opportunity to demonstrate our world class capability.
“The ability of South Australia to offer dramatic, unique and stunning landscapes, mixed with towns of distinctive original character, all supported by world class facilities (as those at the Studios) was a major part of our decision to shoot in South Australia. We found the Adelaide Studios incredibly accommodating to our needs- flexible and willing to work with us on different elements of production we needed. They were simply, great”, commented Liz Watts, producer of The Rover.
“For us, our ability to work with locals and townships and location owners in shooting was a really important part of achieving the look and tone of the film that we wanted. We shot in five key areas; around Port Augusta; Quorne and its neighbours, Hammond and Bruce; Hawker; Parachilna and lastly the absolutely unique Marree. Ever since David and I first visited Marree last year in surveys we were keen to include the town in the film, and we ended up spending just over two and a half weeks there with around 100 cast and crew, effectively doubling the population of the town. But the support we found there from the whole community was exceptional. I believe The Rover is the first feature film (since the amazing Back of Beyond documentary was shot there in the 1950s) to shoot in Marree, and we feel pretty priviledged in doing so”, shared Watts.
“We worked with locals in many ways including great locations and their owners, plus cast and extras. For our crew, this film has been a really memorable experience – as it was for our two leads, Guy and Rob” she continued.
THE ROVER will be completed in late 2013 and theatrical release timed for first quarter 2014. Australian distributor is Village Roadshow with FilmNation distributing internationally.
You can read the full article at South Australian Film Corporation
