Rob Is No Longer Attached To ‘Mission: Blacklist’

Robert Pattinson has exited “Mission: Blacklist,” an indie thriller about the hunt for Saddam Hussein, due to scheduling issues, TheWrap has learned.

First announced in May 2012, Pattinson was set to play military interrogator Eric Maddox, who spearheaded Hussein's capture.

That role will now be recast, and the filmmakers hope to start production this fall.

Swedish filmmaker Jesper Ganslandt remains attached to direct from a script by “Band of Brothers” scribe Erik Jendresen, Dylan Kussman and Trace Sheehan, who adapted  Harper Collins’ 2008 book “Mission: Black List #1,” written by Maddox and Davin Seay.

Preferred Content's Ross Dinerstein is producing with Jendresen and Kevin Waller, as well as Bart Rosenblatt of Code Entertainment, which is also financing the film.

Pattinson has a busy spring with two films heading to Cannes — David Cronenberg's “Maps to the Stars” and David Michod's “The Rover.” He also recently wrapped the role of photographer Dennis Stock opposite Dane DeHaan's James Dean in Anton Corbijn's “Life.”

Looking ahead, Pattinson is attached to star alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in James Gray's “The Lost City of Z” and the James Marsh thriller “Hold On to Me” with Carey Mulligan. He's repped by WME, 3 Arts Entertainment, Curtis Brown Group and attorney Robert Offer.

 source

Rob's Movies at EFM: MTTS, The Rover, Life, QOTD, Childhood of a Leader and Mission: Blacklist

Lots of Rob's upcoming movies are at the European Film Market in Berlin this year. We are hoping for great sales :)

Maps to the Stars

Listed on eOne Film's EFM Line Up (and new still with Sarah Gadon)



The Rover

Listed on Screen Australia's EFM Line Up



Life

Also listed on Screen Australia's EFM Line Up and as 'The Rover', Filmnation is handling the sales



Queen of the Desert

Variety mentions 'Queen of the Desert' in an EFM article:

Berlin will see a pair of queens up for sale: “Queen of the Desert” repped by Sierra/Affinity with helmer Werner Herzog attached, and Atom Egoyan’s “Queen of the Night,” being sold by Entertainment One Intl., starring Ryan Reynolds.

Here is 'Queen of the Desert's' page on Sierra/Affinity's site

The Childhood of a Leader

Screendaily mentions 'The Childhood of a Leader' in an article about Protagonist Pictures' movies at EFM:

Protagonist’s EFM slate includes anticipated new period dramas Testament of Youth, produced by David Heyman and starring Alicia Vikander, and The Childhood of a Leader, which has Juliette Binoche, Tim Roth and Robert Pattinson attached.

Here is the article on Protagonist Picture's website about handling 'The Childhood of a Leader' international sales

Mission: Blacklist

Listed on Embankment Film's EFM Line Up

Eric Maddox Talks About Rob and 'Mission: Blacklist'

Click on the screencap to watch. At 4:35


ETA: Maddox mentioned Rob and 'Mission: Blacklist' in another interview with KGOU. You can listen the audio at the source, he talks about Rob at 13:25.

Here's a transcript of what he says:

GRILLOT: So I have to mention here, as we're finishing up, your book Mission: Blacklist is going to be made into a film. Robert Pattinson's been cast to play you in your movie. How do you feel about that? What are we going to learn? What are we going to see in this film?

MADDOX: I'm very excited about it. The one thing I've asked is that the movie be as real as possible. And working with Rob, that's the one thing he insists on. He always asks me, 'Is this real? Did this happen?' So it's exciting. We'll see.

via | via | via

'Mission: Blackilist' Update: New Director, Script Rewrite, Filming Schedule

Deadline confirms what we reported a few weeks ago on twitter, is the new director of 'Mission: Blacklist'. According to the article, filming is schedule to the fall

From Deadline

The Swedish invasion into Hollywood continues. Jesper Ganslandt has been tapped to direct Robert Pattinson in the psychological thriller Mission: Blacklist, about a brilliant young military interrogator who spearheads the capture of Saddam Hussein. Pic is based on the life of soldier-turned-intelligence agent Eric Maddox, who funneled his experiences into the 2008 nonfic book Mission: Black List #1 – The Inside Story of the Search for Saddam Hussein – As Told by the Soldier Who Masterminded His Capture. The Code Entertainment project was first announced last year in Cannes back when Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire was set to direct. Following Sauvaire’s departure Ganslandt stepped in and will make his English-language debut after directing three features, Blondie, The Ape, and Falkenberg Farewell, in his native Sweden. Filming is scheduled for the fall.

The script is by Band of Brothers scribe Erik Jendressen, Dylan Kussman, and Trace Sheehan. Ross M. Dinerstein of Preferred Content is producing alongside Jendressen and Kevin Waller, with Code Entertainment producing and financing the project. Jesper is repped by Paradigm and Magnolia.

Dylan Kussman, 'Mission: Blacklist' screenwriter, that first shared the news about Ganslandt, tweeted today a few updates about the script and shooting locations:

ETA: @Blacklist_blog obtained a list from the California Film Comission of productions approved under the Tax Incentive Program. 'Mission: Blacklist' is listed with a start of photography date for September 30, 2013.

Mission: Blacklist is approved under the Tax Incentive Program and its start of photography date is September 30, 2013.

Under this program, the production must film either 75% of its days in California, or spend 70% of its production budget in California.

Click here for more details at Missionblacklist-film.com and to see the full list from the California Film Comission

New Interview with Eric Maddox - 'Mission Blacklist' should start filming in August

News on 6 (Oklahoma) interviewed Eric Maddox. According to the report (at the end of the video), filming should start in August.

We'll wait and see for more news.

On Dailymotion or watch at the source


Source | Via

Dailymotion

Dylan Kussman, Misson: Blacklist's Screenwriter, Talks About Rob And The Movie

Missionblacklistfrance got the chance to interview the screenwriter for Misson: Blacklist's - Dylan Kussman, and were sweet to share it with us. Here are the parts in which he mentions Rob and the movie.

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."

Was it complicated for you to work on this book and, particularly, on this subject?

"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."

Did you work directly with Eric Maddox to sort out what to take or not take from the book?

"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."

 In the story, the blue shirt is very important and during a lecture in Oklahoma University, Eric Maddox said that Robert Pattinson will probably wear it, did you include it in your work?

"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."

Did you have a word in the castings? And in the choice for the place where it will be filmed?

"No, and no"

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."

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"

Thanks to Missionblacklistfrance  :')

Eric Maddox talks about Mission: Blacklist and Rob

Eric Maddox - interrogator, author and OU alumnus explained the process of finding and capturing Saddam Hussein and detailed the dilemmas he faced to about 300 people in Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Molly Shi Boren Ballroom.

(...)

This same story is encapsulated in his book, “Mission: Blacklist #1,” on which a movie will be based starring Robert Pattinson, who will play Maddox.

“Somebody wants to make a movie about my story - it’s very exciting,” Maddox said.

Maddox said he has already met and gotten to know Pattinson.

“He’s a great guy,” Maddox said. “When they brought his name up to me, I had never heard of him before. I don’t believe in vampire movies and stories. I just didn’t know who he was.”

Maddox said he wore a single blue shirt for months in his search for Hussein, with no other changes of clothes. The shirt has a bigmouth bass embossed on it, Velcro pockets and bloodstains.

“I’ve still got it [the shirt.] I think Rob is gonna wear it in the movie,” Maddox said.

Maddox had to wait five years to tell his story and write the book due to the U.S. government preferring to keep it classified, he said.

“Since then, the United States government wanted me to endorse the movie, and wanted me to say who I am and what I do,” he said.

Read the full article at the source | via

New/Old Picture of Rob and Eric Maddox

Click for bigger

Posted by Eric Maddox on his Facebook page on November 28, 2012


Eric Maddox Facebook/thanks to @Agnesadic for the link / Thanks to @trollberts for the heads up

Mission: Blacklist Update - Filming Schedule and Location

According to Embankment Films' website, there's an update on Mission: Blacklist's schedule:

Start of Principal Photography - April 2013
Delivery: Summer 2014.

@Blacklistmovie contacted Embankment Films and confirmed the schedule - they'll start filming in April.

And from the same email sent to @blacklistmovie, an update on the location - they'll NOT film in Iraq

From  @blacklistmovie:

Confirmation of SPP April 2013; Delivery Summer 2014 for Mission: Blacklist came via email from Hugo Grumbar, a partner @ EMBANKMENT FILMS.

More Mission: Blacklist update directly from Embankment Films re filming location "It will not be Iraq, they start shooting in April."

source | via

Rob Talks About Future Projects and 'Mission: Blacklist' with Publinews (Guatemala)

Mostly the same we've read and heard him say during this promo, but a couple of new quotes


Translation

Edward Cullen, the enigmatic and central figure of The Twilight Saga, was the role that launched Robert Pattinson to success. Something that according to him, doesn’t quite fits into his personality.

Publinews talked to him about critics and future projects.

“I have a weird mental disorder: I only listen the negative part. It doesn’t matter if a lot of people say really good things, I always see it negative.”

Maybe I feel I don’t deserve it yet, that’s why I really want to feel in my head that I do something worthwhile, and fight for a long period of time.

In any case, Pattinson feels uncomfortable with The Twilight Saga’s fame, although it’s a motivation for his career. “This year I’ve sign to a lot of things. I was obsessed in working with people that are qualified as dangerous; I thought it would be thrilling.”

“I think that anyone who has some vision, could try to make really subversive things. I think it will be really interesting to develop these kind of projects within the mainstream, movies that convert the audience in participants and not just consumers.”

This sensitivity is what made him sign into “Mission: Blacklist”, movie that will be shot in Irak next year. “Probably this film will be out of anyone’s comfort zone”

“It’s about a character named “Eric Maddox” who was an army interrogator and almost caught Saddam Hussein all by himself”. “Nobody knows the truth story, which is absolutely incredible, bizzare and hilarante in some aspects.”

Joining to this project, the French visionary director, Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, who utilized true Liberian soldiers kids in his previous film.

Rob's Interview With M6 (France) - LA Press Junket

Moving the post to the top because more of the interview was added

ETA: More from Rob's interview - starts at 1:09





Translation

For 4 years, the Twilight vampires haunted our theaters. The saga ends with 'Breaking Dawn - Part 2' out on November 14th, and we got to meet exclusively the main actors Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in LA. The on screen couple who went through a difficult time off screen, won't answer any personal questions but will talk about life after Twilight.

Rob: I'm kind of excited about it, at the moment. I'm not sad for now but I think I might be when we're done with promoting it. It lasted a long time and it's done now, it's complete, it's kind of exciting

Rob: I'm sure some people will say 'they changed the story!' but I hope they'll still like it.

Movies that made Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson into movie stars, the latter has a mass of projects coming up.

Rob: I'm filming a lot of movies next year. For starters, 'The Rover' is some sort of futuristic western that means a lot to me. And I might film in Iraq but I'm not sure when. And finally I'm gonna shoot with Cronenberg again, it's incredible.

Video source | Source

Rob's MTV Rough Cut

3 Videos in 1 - Dailymotion


MTV Player

Rob's Interview with On The Red Carpet

Warning: spoilers in the interview


Source | Via

Rob's Interview with Brooke Anderson/The Insider

ETA: Full interview



Longer answer about what he's doing next - talks Mission: Blacklist and The Rover

The final chapter of The Twilight Saga is upon us, and The Insider's Brooke Anderson is with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson to find out how much they've changed over the past five years – and what the future holds for each of them, post-Twilight.

"I'd still love to be an actor. Hopefully in ten years I'm in the same spot," says Kristen, while Rob says, "I'm trying to go for things which are slightly dangerous. I'm doing a movie in Iraq."

And is Rob the next face of Dior men's fragrance? When asked, the star jokes about what the "Robert Pattinson Scent" would smell like, saying, "It varies from day to day, kind of depending what I've eaten."

In The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, out November 16, Bella must learn to control her urges as a bloodthirsty vampire while becoming a protective mother to daughter Renesmee (played by 11-year-old Mackenzie Foy) with sparkly vamp dad Edward. But the ruling Volturi mistakenly believe that the couple's spawn was born human and then turned into a bloodsucker – a violation of their law – prompting the Cullen clan to circle the wagons and prove their case.

Longer answer about what he's doing next - talks Mission: Blacklist and The Rover | Full Interview

Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, 'Mission: Blacklist' Director, Talks About Rob And The Movie

Transcript added - Video starts around 18:36 to 22:28 and then again at 24:00

You worked with Robert Pattinson? How was it to work with the star?
It seems at the same time that Rob Pattinson ... I was interested in Robert because the same, I think he has in real life, he has a great personality and that's why he's so famous today. That's why everybody likes him like this because he's so unique and I'm really interested working with this guy because... and I saw Cosmopolis for example, his last film, and I think he did a great performance, you know, he's amazing in the film, he's totally different as in real life, at the same time you believed his character. I mean he's amazing and the character he has to do in my film, in 'Mission Blacklist', it's a tough character, I mean it's not at all what we can imagine from Rob Pattinson, or what we know about this guy so it's gonna be really interesting I'm sure he's gonna be great because he's really intense and he has this ... I know that he is a great actor inside, I'm really excited in working with him on this film and we're gonna do the same, you know living in Iraq, doing some rehearsals and as it's based on a true story we're gonna work with Eric Maddox, who's the real person on which is based the story so it's gonna be interesting to mix work with as well Iraqi non (or known?) professional actors because the film is in Iraq, it () during the war, I want to, the same, you know, in being between fiction and documentary.

So you go on the lines, on the borderlines? You have no problem to go borderlines? You know to do, to shoot a movie in Iraq?
I think to do a good movie, to do a movie you need to take risks, if you know before anything, if you calculate everything ... we don't know how to do good movies so I think it's important to take risks, and try to find different ways of making films actually, not doing all the same, that's maybe a punk attitude as well but not doing as everybody's doing, same number of days of shooting, same coût?(cost in french), same kind of set, of (???). No, we have to try to change, it can be like doing a film with three people, something with like a 100 people in a coût?, whatever, I mean trying to imagine some different stuff, even different way of walking with the actors and different way of shooting the film, that's what really interest me. That's why I walked so long as an A.D (Assistant Director), as well as trying to (???). That's a French film but we can, it's not the same script so we have to find a way of doing the film differently, as any film, you know. Even on the way you shoot the film so going in Iraq for me it's really important because it's gonna be like so different shooting there as shooting in LA in a studio for example for the actors, I mean being there and understand how it was and meeting the Iraqis who are like unique and intense and great people and understand this culture and everything, I think it's part of the process.

at 23:55
It's alright to know some different worlds and different countries and meeting different people, for example on this film with Pattinson, you know I spent like 5 weeks in Iraq, living in Saddam Hussein palaces and when I was there I say 'wow'. I mean that's why I really love making movies, you know. How could I have been sleeping in Saddam Hussein's palace if I was not director, if I wasn't working on this film. I would have never been maybe to Iraq and it was great to be there and to understand the Iraqis and to meet the Iraqis.

Video: Source | Via

Great New Rob Interview with Cinemania - Talks about BD2, Twilight, Kristen, Mission: Blacklist and 50 Shades

Translation of two interviews - First an article with quotes from Rob, Kristen, Taylor and Stephenie Meyer. Then a solo Rob interview (Q&A)





Translation - thanks so much to @oldmoriartyy for taking the time to translate this REALLY long interview :)

Article - quotes from Rob, Kristen, Taylor and Stephenie Meyer
Article starts with a recap description of the last scene in BD1 and the synopsis of BD2.

Cinemanía met up with the team behind Breaking Dawn Part 2 this summer, first in San Diego and then again in Los Angeles, a few days before the scandal that put Pattinson and Stewart in danger broke. With Stephenie Meyer and the actors we reflected over the success of the Twilight Saga, fan enthusiasm, the sadness of saying goodbye, the memories and the excitement of finally taking some much deserved vacations.

The end of an era
We’ve seen them mature in front of cameras and our eyes, becoming grown up actors with a promising career. Stewart was only 18 when she played the insecure and in love Bella for the first time. Lautner was only 16 and had to get in shape with the possibility of a new actor replacing him for New Moon, and Pattinson was only an English actor that we saw dying in the fourth Harry Potter film. After four years and five movies, these guys agree in a lot of things: this franchise has changed their lives. They also admit to having a certain sadness because of never returning to that universe. The non-stop filming of both Breaking Dawn releases, for seven long months in Vancouver, were too long and tiring for the actors.

“If they told me tomorrow that we had to film new scenes, I’d be really happy. I’d start vibrating with excitement, because I enjoy playing this character,” Stewart explained to us about the bittersweet end that is approaching.

The actress also added that in reality, she hasn’t had to say goodbye to Bella, because all the characters she plays stay with her after she’s done portraying them, “I’ve taken all I needed from her and now this stage is over. This project has been something very special, it lasted a long time, it’s been very indulging and wonderful, although at the same time we were all rushing, not to be done with it, but to complete the experience. Now that we’ve made it, I like looking at it from a distance.”

Lautner, aware of the end of this very long and meaningful stage in his career, was sure to enjoy every single last moment on set, “I remember that the final date was approaching. There were three weeks of shooting left and I said to myself: ‘Now is when I should start soaking in every moment, because I know that when we’re done I’m going to want to turn back time and start this again.’ I’m very happy I did.” He confessed.

For him, there was an especially memorable instant during Breaking Dawn filming, “The most exciting scene to me was the dance with Bella, after the wedding, it’s on Part 1. It was the last thing I filmed in the entire franchise. It was a unique moment, but at the same time it was a tough scene on Jacob, it’s when he has to say goodbye to Bella,” he told, and admitted that the end of this saga allowed him to do something he’d been wanting to for a while, “When a movie ends, you need to take a week to sleep and not do anything. It’s fun because, after this week you thing: ‘Stop. I need to get back to work.’”

Pattinson’s words are probably more enticing to saddened fans of the saga, the actor wanted us to know that this isn’t really the end of the Twilight era, “I see the Harry Potter series and nobody is behaving like it’s over. Everybody looks at the cast the same way. I don’t think it affects in any way. It’ll take years for things to calm down or you need to do something more definitive after this to show the direction you want to take.”

Rob's Interview With Fitzy & Wippa

Youtube or watch at the source: Video 1 | Video 2 | Video 3


Youtube thanks to @DiarioTwilight

Rob and Cronenberg talk Cosmopolis, working with each other, The Rover and Mission Blacklist with The Playlist

From The Playlist (click to read full article)

Catching up with Pattinson as he did press rounds for "Cosmopolis," he filled us in on what we might expect from Michôd's follow-up to his crime drama "Animal Kingdom." Set to shoot next year, "The Rover" boasts some pretty big ideas behind its deceptively simple set up. "It's a kind of a western," Pattinson explained. "It's very existential. It's really interesting. I couldn't really explain to you what it's about but it's sort of about how much pain can the world take and how much disgust and cruelty before love dies. I think that's kind of what it's about." (Cronenberg, who was in the room, chimed in with: " That sounds pretty heavy!")

Pattinson will co-star in the film with Guy Pearce, with the near-future-set story centering on a man who journeys across the Australian outback to find his stolen car, which contains something invaluable to him. However, Pattinson admits that perhaps his description might be a little more highfalutin than the actual movie. "David Michôd's going to read this and be like 'What the fuck are you talking about? It's a crime movie,' " he said with a laugh.

As for when "The Rover" is coming out, Pattinson admitted it is later than he originally wanted. "I wish it was shooting this fall," he said. "I was supposed to be doing this movie this fall but that was pushed to after 'The Rover,' which is a good thing because it needs a ton of work. But I really wish I could move 'The Rover' up. I've got to find something else to do."

ETA: Added more from Rob and Cronenberg's interview with The Playlist (click to read full article)

When it came down to casting, Cronenberg had to ask some essential questions: "How old is this character? How old are the actors around? Who can do the New York accent even if they're not from around there? Who has the star power to get you financing, which is always an issue?" Finally the director decided on Pattinson, best known for his role as vampire Edward Cullen in the insanely popular "Twilight" series. Even with Cronenberg's considerable cache, it took him a while to sell Pattinson on the project. Ten days, to be exact.

"I suddenly realized I had no idea how to do it at all," Pattinson said, seeming slightly embarrassed about the whole episode. "I knew it was really good but I was terrified of even calling. Actors are always trained to bullshit, even if you hate something. And I had nothing to say, at all. Because David did the script he obviously knows what it's about. As soon as I said, 'I don't know what it's about,' and he said, 'Me neither.'" And while that was reassuring to the actor, it wasn't the end. "Then I spent a week trying to figure out how to get out of it, where I got to the point where I was going to have to call up and say, 'I'm too scared because I don't think I'm a good enough actor and I'm a pussy.' I didn’t want to have that conversation."

Thankfully that conversation didn't happen, mostly because Cronenberg assured Pattinson that he was "absolutely the right person" for the role. And with Pattinson, the movie had an actual fighting chance of getting made (with a lesser box office draw, this would have been more or less an impossibility). "Well it was certainly a thrill to be able to help it get made… Especially one like this," Pattinson said. The actor said that Cronenberg was so legendary that Pattinson wasn't even sure he was still making movies. "He's one of those directors where he's not even on a level of 'Oh yeah I really want to work with him.'" That's when Pattinson turned to Cronenberg and lovingly said, "You have an adjective!" To which Cronenberg exclaimed (with a kind of demented glee): "Cronenbergian!" Pattinson then continued: "It's kind of changed my whole perception of who I can work with. There are people who I grew up watching who are so part of the film language that you don't even realize that they're still making movies." Cronenberg then shot back: "That they're still alive! Which is what he's trying to say."

(...)

Whatever Cronenberg ends up shooting next, he would like Pattinson to come along for the ride. "We had a great time and we just know we could do something really cool together," Cronenberg said, noting that the long-gestating Bruce Wagner project "Map to the Stars" "could be" one of those projects. "We just don't know what it is. So if you've got any ideas, please let us know."

'MTV First: Robert Pattinson' - Full Interview and Pictures

11 Pictures from the interview at the end of the post (under all videos). Full interview in 16 videos



Videos

On Youtube - We're sorry, but the Youtube videos were deleted

Full Interview - MTV Player

Robert Pattinson Plays 'Never Have I Ever'

Get More:
Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

Rob and Cronenberg talk about Cosmopolis and Future Projects with TIME

Eric Packer, the icily charismatic asset manager played by Robert Pattinson in Cosmopolis, does a great many interesting things in a single, fateful day. In his white stretch limousine, he attempts to traverse Manhattan in gridlock traffic amid violent Occupy-like protests, and all in search of a haircut. He forfeits hundreds of millions of dollars in a suicidal currency-speculation bid. He enjoys afternoon sex with a comely security specialist wearing a body-armor vest with a stun gun on hand. He also has sex with Juliette Binoche. He also endures a weirdly erotic prostate exam while staring into the eyes of a sweaty associate. He gets a pie in the face from a “pastry assassin” who travels with a crew of paparazzi. He is stalked by an actual would-be assassin as well.

So much to talk about! But overshadowing Pattinson’s press tour for Cosmopolis—directed by the great David Cronenberg and adapted from Don DeLillo’s 2003 novel—is the recent tabloid frenzy surrounding his breakup with Twilight costar Kristen Stewart. (The final film in the Twilight franchise is out in November.) TIME sat down with Cronenberg and Pattinson—fresh-faced, sweet, totally affable, smoking an electronic cigarette— in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood the day after the New York City premiere of Cosmopolis. We mostly stayed on topic, if occasionally tiptoeing awkwardly around the heartbroken vampire-elephant in the room.

TIME: Cosmopolis was published in the first year of the war in Iraq, and in a wave of novels that were all described as being “post–Sept. 11” in one way or other, but now the story maps on remarkably well to Occupy Wall Street and other protest movements around the world in 2011. David, at what point did you encounter the book, and when did you know it was a movie?
David Cronenberg: It was about three years ago, and the attraction wasn’t that the novel was prescient or because of its historical place. It was the characters, the dialogue, the intensity, the humor—it’s constantly funny. I wasn’t looking to make any kind of statement. Inevitably, though, if you’re making something with integrity, it will say something about the time it’s being made in. When the novel came out, people were saying, “All this demonstrating-on-Wall-Street stuff isn’t very convincing.” Now it’s obvious.


Robert, DeLillo’s dialogue is hyper-stylized, very formal, and often steeped in theory. How did you approach it?
Robert Pattinson: The first thing I connected to was the humor. Everything else seemed kind of arbitrary. I liked that it was absurd and unrelatable in a lot of ways. I thought that Eric doesn’t understand himself, so that was my angle—play the part as if you don’t understand the part. [Cronenberg laughs merrily] Try to remain lost. I noticed that every single time I came into a scene with an idea or an angle about how to do it, it would feel wrong, and David would know it was wrong. When I was kind of somewhere else, not thinking at all—that was when it felt right.


What’s relatable about Eric might be that his world is so mediated by technology—he experiences the world at a remove, through screens, and so he’s struggling to feel something, whether it’s through sex or shooting a gun or gambling away his fortune. Do you think people can relate to that kind of alienation and wanting something real?
DC: One of the investors in the movie is a genuine French billionaire named Edouard Carmignac. He’s known as the French Warren Buffett. He wanted to be involved with this movie because he said it was absolutely accurate. He knows many people who are like this character, who have created this strange bubble that they live in. Within that bubble, they’re very alive and in control, and yet they’re completely disconnected from normal humanity, normal relationships. So Eric Packer says things to his wife like, “This is how people talk, right?” He’s trying it out, because he really doesn’t know. He’s dealing with billions of dollars, but he’s never actually touching real money and he doesn’t know how to actually pay for things. Of course, Carmignac doesn’t think of himself as that person, but he recognizes it completely. So I take him at his word that it’s not such a stretch. People create a limo for themselves, a little spaceship, a little bell jar in which they insulate themselves from things that hurt.

RP: I think Eric is confused between genuine power and ego. He’s mixing the two up. I think a lot of people in that job find that empathy is a weakness, so he realizes that it’s a strength. I’ve read things that describe Eric as a monster, but I always thought the story was a hopeful progression. His biggest problem is that he’s totally self-obsessed. But he’s taking baby steps toward coming to terms with it. He’s had an extended adolescence in a lot of ways, and he’s really smart—he’s a savant. Some people are so entrenched in what they think they are, and he realizes that the only shock that can snap him out of himself is that someone is going to kill him.


Do you also see Cosmopolis as a story about fame? Eric is in a bubble, people he doesn’t know know him, they spin narratives in their head about him, and—
DC: No, I don’t think so. It’s like the London whale—nobody knows what that guy looks like, nobody knows where he lives. That’s his strength as a trader: nobody can predict him, nobody understands him. I think Eric is like that. On the outside, his limo looks like everyone else’s. He just got this one guy who wants to “pie” him, who’s got the paparazzi with him. But Eric can have dinner and no one’s around, he can go to the diner with his wife and nobody bothers him. He’s got the one security guy but that’s it. He doesn’t have fans.

RP: The world would be a much better place, I think, if all these bankers and billionaires were followed by paparazzi and studied as carefully. As soon as people look at something very closely, the whole thing just crumbles.