@bananimal_w: Robert Pattinson and I just went through security at LAX together!!! #daymade
Thanks to Laisa :)
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.
Here's what Entertainment One's Patrice Theroux had to say in a statement.
"We're thrilled to secure worldwide sales rights for Maps to the Stars and add it to the lineup in four of our core territories. David is a visionary who continues to attract top talent with his unique style and the masterful quality of his filmmaking. With this all-star cast Maps to the Stars is a very exciting international project and we're looking forward to introducing the project in Cannes."Prospero Pictures' Martin Katz also released his own statement.
"Maps to the Stars marks Prospero's fourth collaboration with David over the past decade and together with our partners, we are delighted to be launching this audacious new film this year, particularly with eOne. The eOne team just gets it and continues to showcase films at the highest levels on the international stage."
"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."
"The most challenging part about working on the project for me personally was absorbing the vast amount of research Erik and Trace had compiled before I came onboard. On top of the book itself, there were hundreds of pages of interviews they'd conducted with the Staff Sergeant, firsthand accounts of the Iraq War and of the American presence in Baghdad and Tikrit after Saddam's fall -- I had to get up to speed in a hurry. Once I'd gotten on top of the material, however, I was fortunately able to see a strong and clear contribution I could make towards rendering this soldier's mind-bending ordeal into a piece of dramatic cinema. Incredible human beings don't always make compelling onscreen protagonists, but between the work we've done as writers, Jean Stephane Sauvaire's guiding hand as director, and Robert Pattinson's committment to playing this inspiring figure with the fearless honesty for which he's known, I don't think that will be the case here."
"Both Erik Jendresen and Trace Sheehan worked more directly with Eric Maddox than I did, and Mr. Pattinson has spent an extended amount of time with him at this point. They will be able to speak to your question better than me."
"Eric Maddox wore the same blue oxford shirt throughout his intelligence effort to help locate Saddam Hussein, and we included that costume choice as part of Maddox's character in the screenplay. Whether Robert will be wearing the actual shirt during the shoot is a question for the director, actor, and Staff Sergeant Maddox to answer."
"No, and no"
"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."
"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"
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.”