April 29: Screenwriter Rachel Bennette and directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod are basically all film newcomers in their respective capacities, though Donnellan and Ormerod have both done extensive and quite prestigious stage work. Among the plays they have staged are works by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Pushkin, and Tennessee Williams.
Besides Pattinson, the Bel Ami cast includes Kristin Scott Thomas, Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, and Colm Meaney.
As an aside, in Albert Lewin’s 1947 film The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, Duroy is played by future Oscar winner George Sanders, who was 40-41 at the time.
Robert Pattinson will next be seen in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, playing opposite Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Dakota Fanning. David Slade directed from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg. Eclipse opens on June 30.
Robert Pattinson is seen in a Bel Ami scene, playing Guy de Maupassant’s antihero Georges Duroy. This is indeed the sequence in which Duroy, an ambitious journalist, watches rich people eat at a fancy Parisian hotel – though actually shot at Budapest’s New York Palace Hotel.
In de Maupassant’s novel, Duroy ends up as a cunning social climber, using women of influence as steps on his ladder to success in 19th-century Paris. The novel was published in 1885.
Worth checking out: a Vanity Fair piece in which author Julian Sancton wonders where is Georges Duroy’s mustache, which plays a prominent role in the novel. Duroy is thus described: “Tall, well-built, fair, with blue eyes, a curled mustache, hair naturally wavy… he recalled the hero of the popular romances.”
In his piece, Sancton quotes several mentions of Duroy’s mustache found in de Maupassant’s book. One of them reads: “After changing his five-franc piece Georges Duroy left the restaurant. He twisted his mustache in military style and cast a rapid, sweeping glance upon the diners.”
Robert Pattinson speaks Hungarian in the clip above, shot in late March while Pattinson was filming Bel Ami in Budapest. According to some comments I found online, Pattinson actually said, “thank you that you were in silence.”
Apparently, there were few images coming out of the Bel Ami set while the film was being shot in London. But when production moved to Budapest, photos and videos began showing up online with surprising speed.
April 27: Taylor Lautner, the future Stretch Armstrong and winner of the Kids Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor, confronts Robert Pattinson in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which opens in the United States on June 30. Both Lautner, as the werewolf Jacob Black, and Pattinson, as the vampire Edward Cullen, are after Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan.
On to other Taylor Lautner news:
Jay A. Fernandez says in The Hollywood Reporter that Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow, the upcoming Johnny Depp-Angelina Jolie thriller The Tourist) has been hired to work on Shawn Christensen’s original screenplay for Abduction, Lautner’s other project-in-the-works.
To be directed by Academy Award nominee John Singleton, Abduction is a thriller about a young man who flees home after discovering his baby photo on a missing persons website.
Lily Collins (Phil Collins’ daughter) is set to co-star with Lautner, who is also producing Abduction. Lionsgate wants filming to start in July so Lautner can be done with it before shooting on Summit Entertainment’s Breaking Dawn begins some time in the fall.
April 22: Kristen Stewart may [italicized] be replacing Angelina Jolie if [italicized] there’s a sequel to Timur Bekmambetov’s box office hit Wanted, which paired Jolie with James McAvoy. At least that’s what E! Online has to say.
As per the report, Stewart would play “a young, ass-kicking assassin in the Fraternity.” Since her Joan Jett opposite Dakota Fanning’s Cherie Currie in Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways, everyone – well, at least some people – seem to be looking at Kristen Stewart as a completely different actress.
Stewart, of course, has also been mentioned as a possibility for the American remake of the Swedish thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, fiercely played in the original by European Film Award nominee Noomi Rapace.
Money and time issues have thus far prevented Jolie from signing onto the project – which may not even get off the ground. But if it does, then Stewart might be the one to keep the potential franchise going. (Jolie’s character dies in the original Wanted, but she was supposed to have been brought back for the sequel somehow.)
Scheduling, however, may be an issue for Stewart, as the final installment in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, doesn’t have a set shooting date as yet – probably as early as October 2010, but that’s about it for the time being.
Radcliffe & Pattinson among richest U.K. nationals under 30
April 26: Daniel Radcliffe, 21 next July, and Robert Pattinson, 24 next May, are two of the richest British denizens under 30, according to the Sunday Times.
Thanks to the Harry Potter franchise, Daniel Radcliffe earned £25.6 million last year – more than 100 times what he got for his appearance in the first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001). Radcliffe’s fortune is now estimated to be £42 million.
As per the Times report, Radcliffe has donated money to help children’s hospices and last year made a “major donation” to the US-based Trevor Project, which runs a helpline for troubled lesbian, gay and bisexual youth.
The report adds that fellow Harry Potter alumni Emma Watson, who just turned 20, is now worth £22 million, while Rupert Grint, 22 next August, is worth £20 million.
Robert Pattinson, Twilight‘s vampire Edward Cullen, is on the list as the 14th richest person under 30. Pattinson’s assets are supposed to total £13 million. The report adds that “only a few years ago” Pattinson considered giving up acting and was none too successful at pursuing a music career.
Best quote from the 14th richest person under 30: “Last year, if I went out, I’d have to fight to chat someone up. This year, I look exactly the same, which is really scruffy, and yet lots of people seem to have just changed their minds and decided I’m really sexy.”
Topping the Times list is Arthur Landon, 28, who inherited £200 million.
7 comments
actually, the character of george duroy is in the same age range as robert pattinson’s actual age. Bel Ami is actually a quite good read and translates well into modern times.
…He does look different for each part, I’m glad they’ll be shooting Breaking Dawn this year because they boy aint looking like a 17year old boy. Or perhaps they can ask whoever did his make-up on the first Twilight movie to do him, at least he was looking a bit 17nish..
Worsting casting rumor EVER unless they want the assassin to mumble her lines and bite her lip the whole time. They shouldn’t even bother making Wanted 2. No one will see it if Angelina, or at least an actress who can believably take over Angelina’s spot as lead female, is in the film.
This is ridiculous. She’s a girl…as opposed to a sexy woman like Angelina. No offence.
That’s odd. Replacement, hardly. Angelina Jolie’s character shoots herself in the last installment when she realized her entire life’s ethical code had been used for a nefarious profit making purpose and she was living in an unknowing sham. Yes, I said shot. Make that shot in the brain. Dead forever.
Her sacrifice spares James McAvoy’s character. The suicide (while taking out the entire twisted crew with one single arcing bullet) pretty much makes the movie and adds a layer of twisted poetry and romance to the otherwise masochistic car rolling stunts and baths of super-healing wax.
Why not get another sympathetic/romantic female character into Wanted? Jolie made the last one! Replacement is the wrong word. Stewart, maybe. Poor McAvoy won’t know what hit him. Lucky devil.
Anyway, I hope Stewart is busy filming The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo with Fincher by then…
LMAO…. what a replacement. How silly!
I love Kristen, shes awesome, If I had a wish, I would want her to play a good witch in Supernatural, and be a regular character. That would be great for the final season - season 6