Robert Pattinson Movie News: Busy Actor

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Robert Pattinson in Bel Ami, with Kristin Scott Thomas, Uma Thurman, and Christina Ricci.

The Twilight Saga actor Robert Pattinson has eclectic list of movie projects and upcoming releases

Shot in early 2010, officially premiered at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival, and released internationally in the ensuing months, the latest film version of Guy de Maupassant’s 1885 novel Bel Ami is also the latest attempt of The Twilight Saga costar Robert Pattinson to both extend his range and gain respect as an actor. Previous attempts to date – Remember Me, Water for Elephants – have been, at best, a mixed bag, as neither movie was a critical or box office hit.

Directed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod from Rachelle Bennette’s screenplay, Bel Ami stars Robert Pattinson as Georges Duroy, an impoverished but ambitious ex-soldier who climbs to the top of Parisian society by using his drive, his wit, and his penis. “There’s no next life. And I am going to live,” he dramatically announces at one point.

Among the women who, directly or indirectly, help him reach life at the top are the characters played by Oscar nominees Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient, 1996) and Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction, 1994), and Christina Ricci.

The nickname “Bel Ami” (lit., “Beautiful [or Handsome] Friend”) is given to Duroy by the young daughter of one of his lovers.

Bel Ami’s U.S. reviews have been overwhelmingly negative: A dismal 9 percent approval rating and a 4.4/10 average among the “top critics” at rottentomatoes.com. For comparison’s sake: Adam Sandler’s braindead box office dud That’s My Boy has an 11 percent approval rating and a 2.3/10 average, while Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has a 26 percent approval rating and a 4.3/10 average.

At the film’s core, Robert Pattinson has hardly escaped unscathed.

Update: As per boxofficemojo.com, Bel Ami – which reportedly cost $11.8 million (not including marketing and distribution expenses) – collected a measly $120,500 in the U.S. and Canada. Note: Released by Magnolia Pictures in early June in the U.S., Bel Ami had been available on VOD platforms since early May; obviously, that (perhaps dramatically) affected its box office take. VOD and other ancillary revenues are unavailable.

Relatively speaking, it fared far better internationally: $9.3 million (possibly incomplete), with Russia/CIS ($3.2 million), Italy ($1.5 million), and the United Kingdom/Ireland ($1.1 million) as its top territories.

So, with Bel Ami about to be gone and (at least for the time being) forgotten, what else is happening with Robert Pattinson? See below.

Cosmopolis at Cannes: ‘Real person’

May 25: David Cronenberg’s chaotic comedy-drama Cosmopolis was screened today at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, where the director, accompanied by actors Robert Pattinson, Sarah Gadon, Paul Giamatti, and Emily Hampshire, posed for photographers. The film is in the running for the Palme d’Or.

Reviews were mixed for Cosmopolis, which some found too talky. On the other hand, they were mostly positive for Robert Pattinson, cast as the as the young multibillionaire New Yorker Eric Packer, and best known until now for playing the vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies.

According to the website Just Jared, when Pattinson was asked a Twilight-related question, Cronenberg interfered, telling the reporter that the 26-year-old actor is a “real person with a history and a past. The history and the past is not Twilight. It is Cosmopolis.”

In addition to Pattinson, Sarah Gadon, Paul Giamatti, and Emily Hampshire, the Cosmopolis cast includes Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton, Jay Baruchel, Mathieu Amalric, Kevin Durand, and Patricia McKenzie.

Cosmopolis opened in France this week.

Robert Pattinson’s 2012 releases

Besides Cosmopolis, Robert Pattinson has two other 2012 releases:

• Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod’s Bel Ami, which has already opened in several countries and is currently available on VOD in the United States. This latest film version of Guy de Maupassant’s novel features Pattinson as an ambitious, impoverished ex-soldier. Bel Ami’s slated U.S. theatrical release date is June 8.
• Bill Condon’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, the last installment in the Twilight movie franchise, which opens on Nov. 16. Pattinson costars opposite Kristen Stewart (whose On the Road was also screened – to mixed reviews – at Cannes) and Taylor Lautner. Other Breaking Dawn 2 cast members include Twilight regulars Elizabeth Reaser, Peter Facinelli, Dakota Fanning, Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, and Billy Burke.

Bel Ami relevance in the early 21st century: ‘The triumph of mediocrity’

Why make a film version of Bel Ami, or, The History of a Scoundrel: A Novel in the early 21st century? Codirector Donnellan explains:

We chose it because it’s very much about how we are now. It’s about a young man with very few talents who manages to seduce his way to the top of society. It’s a triumph of mediocrity very much through celebrity culture.

It’s also about a corrupt media in league with a government that pretends to invade a Muslim country for the good of the people – but is in fact secretly after their mineral wealth, so clearly it has nothing to do with the current situation at all.

As for Robert Pattinson, Ormerod said:

Rob came very early on. He read the script and absolutely loved it, and really related to the character. We met him, and that was like a marriage immediately. He has always been wonderfully committed, and is a terrifically serious actor … I think the reason that Rob was attracted to this role is that it’s the complete opposite of everything that he’s played so far.

Donnellan added:

Very interestingly, he insisted on rehearsing for a whole month in London before we shot one single piece of film, which is very, very unusual for somebody who has as busy a schedule as he has. He was incredibly committed, and couldn’t have been a nicer guy or a more talented guy to work with.

Robert Pattinson in The Rover.

The Rover

More Robert Pattinson casting news: The Twilight Saga actor is to star in The Rover, director David Michôd’s follow-up feature to his critically acclaimed Animal Kingdom. Guy Pearce, soon to be seen in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, is also in negotiations to costar.

According to Variety, The Rover follows a middle-aged man, Eric (Pearce), hunting down the members of a gang who have stolen his last and most prized possession – his beat-up car – in the arid Australian Outback. Pattinson plays a former member of the gang, Rey – left behind to die after he’s seriously injured in a fight.

David Michôd wrote the screenplay based an idea he developed with Animal Kingdom actor Joel Edgerton.

The is the second Robert Pattinson casting news in the last 24 hours. Yesterday, it was reported that Pattinson had signed on to star as U.S. military interrogator Eric Maddox in Mission: Blacklist. Pearce, for his part, may be joining the cast of Iron Man 3 and will also be seen later this year in John Hillcoat’s Lawless, opposite Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy.

The Rover Australia funding

July 25 update: Robert Pattinson The Rover gets Screen Australia funding. The government-funded film organization Screen Australia has announced nearly $20 million investment in 12 film and television projects that “will trigger [approx. US$103 million] in production.” One of the four feature films approved is David Michôd’s The Rover, described as “a futuristic Western.” Robert Pattinson, best known as the vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies, is attached to play one of the leads, alongside Australian native Guy Pearce. David Michôd, for his part, is best known for the crime drama Animal Kingdom.

The other three announced features getting Screen Australia funding are the contemporary drama Felony, whose key talent include producer Rosemary Blight (The Sapphires), producer-writer-actor Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby), and director Matthew Saville (Noise); Anna Broinowski’s documentary / drama mix Aim High in Creation, “celebrating ‘the cinematic genius’” of North Korea’s late leader Kim Jong-Il; and Craig Monahan’s prison drama Healing, featuring Don Hany and Hugo Weaving (Captain America: The First Avenger).

The Rover pre-sales

September 2012 update: The Rover has already been sold in several key territories. Village Roadshow, for one, will distribute the film in Australia and New Zealand.

FilmNation, which acquired most worldwide sales rights to The Rover at the Cannes Film Festival, has been pitching the dystopian actioner at the Toronto Film Festival. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Rover has also been sold to eOne Films in the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembpurg.

That’s the same company handling the North American distribution of another Robert Pattinson movie, the David Cronenberg-directed Cosmopolis, currently in limited release in the United States.

Spring 2013 update: Currently filming in Australia and set in the near future following worldwide financial collapse (unclear if caused by the recent controversial Cyprus bailout non-deal), The Rover features Robert Pattinson as a kind-hearted Australian Outback gang member. Guy Pearce, who had previously roamed the Australian Outback in high heels and outlandish costumes as one of the flaming drag queens in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, plays a man who goes off the deep end after Pattinson’s gang steals his car.

As David Michôd, whose previous effort was the acclaimed Animal Kingdom, told EW.com, The Rover’s “basic story is really quite elemental. You’ve got a really dark, dangerous, murderous person in Guy’s character, and in Rob’s character you have a quite troubled and damaged, but beautiful and naïve, soul.”

Michôd adds that, in regard to another thriller involving gangs, cars, and the Australian Outback, George Miller / Mel Gibson’s trash classic Mad Max, “I think The Rover is going to be way more chillingly authentic and menacing.”

Spring 2014 update: The Rover, which will be presented as one of the Cannes Film Festival’s Midnight screenings, opens in France on June 4. It’ll debut in New York City and Los Angeles on June 13; in the United States, it gets a wider release on June 20.

Besides Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, The Rover also features Scoot McNairy, David Field, Anthony Hayes, Gillian Jones, Susan Prior, Richard Green, and Nash Edgerton (Joel’s brother).

Mission: Blacklist

To star Robert Pattinson, the anti-Zero Dark Thirty-ish* psychological thriller Mission: Blacklist is not the fifth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise but the movie version of U.S. army interrogator Eric Maddox’s book of military memoirs (written with Davin Seay), Mission: Black List #1: The Inside Story of the Search for Saddam Hussein – As Told by the Soldier Who Masterminded His Capture.

Screenplay adaptation by Erik Jendresen. Johnny Mad Dog’s Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire has been assigned to direct.

Now, even though we’re dealing with the U.S. military and prisoners of war, don’t expect torture to play a role in Mission: Blacklist. Maddox claims he never tortured anyone, and has publicly come out against its use. His success, Maddox says in his book, was the result of targeting the right people for questioning (low-level employees) and carefully mapping out their responses.

Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces on Dec. 13, 2003, while hiding in a hole near a farmhouse near the Iraq city of Tikrit. Defiant to the end, Hussein was hanged on Dec. 30, 2006.

Note: Physically speaking, Robert Pattinson and Eric Maddox have as much in common as, say, Madonna and Evita Perón. Oh, never mind.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Mission: Blacklist should be looking for buyers at the Cannes Film Festival later this month.

* No torture.

Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire gone

May 2013 update: So far, Robert Pattinson is the only announced Mission: Blacklist cast member. As initially reported on various sites, Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire is no longer connected with the project.

According to producing company Embankment Films, Mission: Blacklist should commence pre-production in summer 2013; shooting in late summer 2013; and be ready for release in summer 2014.

Now, keep in mind that David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars (see below) is to begin filming in July in Los Angeles and Toronto. And Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert, to costar Robert Pattinson opposite Naomi Watts and James Franco (or Jude Law at one point), is scheduled to start shooting in Morocco in September. In this Gertrude Bell biopic, Pattinson is to play T.E. Lawrence (a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia).

So, how will Pattinson find time to work on Mission: Blacklist between these two other projects?

July 2013 update: Various online sites report that Swedish filmmaker Jesper Ganslandt (Falkenberg Farewell) is next in line to direct Mission: Blacklist.

Robert Pattinson out of Mission: Blacklist

April 2014 update: Robert Pattinson and Mission: Blacklist have parted ways. Pattinson, whose name had been attached to the project since Cannes 2012, has reportedly dropped out due to scheduling issues. According to TheWrap, citing an unnamed source “familiar with the situation,” Pattinson supposedly didn’t have enough time to get ready “for his demanding role.”

According to sources, Robert Pattinson has his name attached to a trio of projects: James Gray’s The Lost City of Z, also starring Benedict Cumberbatch; James Marsh’s thriller Hold On to Me, opposite Carey Mulligan; and Brady Corbet’s The Childhood of a Leader, also to (potentially) feature Juliette Binoche and Tim Roth.

Director Jesper Ganslandt, who replaced Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, remains attached to Mission: Blacklist. The production claims they are hoping to start shooting with another actor in the fall. And, one would assume, they will need to find another set of eyes for the film’s poster.

Robert Pattinson in Maps to the Stars.

Maps to the Stars

During an interview for Metro, Robert Pattinson said that his agent had asked if he would like to appear in David Cronenberg’s next film project, Maps to the Stars to costar, if online sources are to believed, Viggo Mortensen and Rachel Weisz.

“I said yes without thinking!” he added while explaining that he doesn’t know “when exactly we’re going to shoot. But it’ll be David’s first movie shot on American soil. In Los Angeles, to be exact. It will be about the film industry and I promise it’s going to be really weird.”

Back in 2006, when the project was initially announced, Time Out described the Bruce Wagner-written narrative as a “dark Hollywood thriller,” quoting Cronenberg as saying, “Hollywood is a world that is seductive and repellent at the same time, and it is the combination of the two that makes it so potent. I won’t fall back on some clichés or simplistic sloganeering, because the culture and what it reveals about Western culture and the rest of the world is very complex.”

Also at that time, Total Film quoted Cronenberg describing it as “a Hollywood film because the characters are agents, actors and managers, but it is not a satire like The Player.”

Now, back to Pattinson and Maps to the Stars: Making things sound iffier, The Tracking Board also claims that Pattinson is “currently in active development on Unbound Captives, a period drama that will also star Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz.” Active development? Unbound Captives was rumored as a possibility for the aforementioned actors several years ago. Although actress-turned-director Madeleine Stowe has expressed interest in reviving the project, Pattinson recently said that he might be too old for the role at this stage.

David Cronenberg’s casting ‘intuition’

Robert Pattinson’s non-Twilight box office strength is as yet unclear, but his name has worldwide recognition, an important factor when it comes to getting financing for a low-budget movie – with limited commercial appeal – such as Cosmopolis.

Not taking any chances, before casting Pattinson (who replaced Colin Farrell), David Cronenberg did his homework. He watched the 25-year-old actor’s movies, including, one assumes, Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse, in addition to Paul Morrison’s Little Ashes – in which Pattinson plays Salvador Dali as a closeted gay – and Allen Coulter’s romantic drama Remember Me.

“Ultimately, I felt he was the guy,” Cronenberg says. “Once again, intuition.”

Intuition seems to have paid off. A few weeks ago, the filmmaker sounded highly enthusiastic when discussing his Cosmopolis star: “Really, he’s fantastic. He’s sensational. Really, I’m telling you. He’s a great actor. It’s obvious in the movie. It’s not like maybe yes, maybe no. It’s obvious.”

As for Pattinson’s own reaction to being cast, Cronenberg added that “this is an unusual jump for him. He said it himself. It’s scary. It’s a scary thing because he’s never really had to carry a movie quite that way before, totally on his own. He’s in every scene. He’s almost in every shot, so scary for him, but for an actor, scary is good. You don’t want to be bored. You don’t want to be too confident.”

Maps to the Stars

Spring 2014 update: The Hollywood satire Maps to the Stars, the second David Cronenberg-Robert Pattinson collaboration to be screened in competition for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival – following Cosmopolis two years ago – is one of the most anticipated films at the festival for obvious reasons: although an international box office disappointment, the brainy, stream-of-consciousness Cosmopolis earned a number of positive reviews and was the runner-up (trailing only Leos Carax’s fellow white limo movie Holy Motors) on the list of Best Films of 2012 compiled by the prestigious Cahiers du Cinéma.

Clips from the movie show Julianne Moore as Havana Segrand, a younger-looking, (seemingly) somewhat less insane version of Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond; Robert Pattinson as a chauffeur and aspiring screenwriter (reminiscent of William Holden in Sunset Blvd.); a conversation about sexual abuse being the “new religion” of unimaginative storytellers; and Mia Wasikowska’s scar-faced Agatha Weiss claiming that her parents were brother and sister (but that’s a secret).

Maps to the Stars cast: In addition to Julianne Moore, Robert Pattinson, and Mia Wasikowska, also featured are Jayne Heitmeyer, John Cusack, Olivia Williams, Cosmopolis actress Sarah Gadon, Carrie Fisher (recently in the news because she’ll have a role in Star Wars: Episode VII), and Evan Bird as a former child star turned teen drug addict (shades of, to name one, Treasure Island’s and Peter Pan’s Bobby Driscoll).

Bruce Wagner is credited for the Maps to the Stars screenplay. As mentioned further up, Wagner’s satirical look at Hollywood life had been doing the rounds for years, until David Cronenberg finally got the chance (and the financing) to tackle it.

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“Robert Pattinson news” notes

David Cronenberg quote via MTV.com.

Robert Pattinson Cosmopolis image: Alfama Films.

Robert Pattinson The Rover image: A24Films.

Robert Pattinson Maps to the Stars image: eOne.

*last modified in July 2025.