Robert Pattinson just might be in the movie business for the long term. The British actor, who was very pale in five Twilight movies and got hysterically screamed at by fans every time he went to a premiere, has begun to assemble a genuine second act in his career. He’s already played the lead in David Cronenberg’s Don DeLillo adaptation Cosmopolis (pictured), and in June he co-stars with Guy Pearce in David Michod’s The Rover, the writer/director’s follow-up to Animal Kingdom. Now Pattinson is starring in a movie from Dutch rock photographer turned filmmaker Anton Corbijn (Control), although not in the role you would expect.
Life is the story of the friendship between 1950s teen icon James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause) and photographer Dennis Stock, and Pattison will play Stock, not Dean. The much-praised Dane DeHaan (The Place Beyond the Pines) portrays the young actor, whose legend was cemented by his death at the age of 24 in a 1955 automobile accident. Stock’s images of Dean helped form his posthumous appeal, and the film’s supporting cast includes Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby) as Stock’s agent, John Morris, and Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3).
Franco doing Fine
The German director Wim Wenders, whose most interesting work over the last decade has been documentaries such as the 3-D Pina, returns to dramatic filmmaking with Every Thing Will Be Fine, the story of a writer who accidentally runs over and kills a child while driving. The film does not just focus on the days afterwards and the investigation, but the decade that follows as the writer gets away with the crime but is haunted by his guilt. Wenders has cast the notoriously choosy James Franco (who according to imdb.com has 10 films, including this one, completed or in post-production—yes, 10) in the lead role. Opposite Franco is Rachel McAdams (Midnight in Paris) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (Nymphomaniac).
Bernal without background
The gifted Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal (Babel) continues to work with emerging filmmakers outside the usual Los Angeles/London axis. In The Ardor, he links up with Argentinean director Pablo Fendrik, who turned heads with his two earlier features, The Mugger and Blood Appears. Bernal will play a man who without background or explanation rescues the daughter of a murdered farmer from mercenaries who have seized the family’s land; opposite him in the English-language feature will be Alice Braga (Elysium).
Tommy Lee takes director's seat again
The first theatrical feature directed by actor Tommy Lee Jones was 2005’s The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, an impressive, contemplative drama that helped turn around an acting career that was verging on the clichéd. Now the 67-year-old Jones will also star in his second film behind the camera, The Homesman, playing a claim jumper on the 19th century American frontier who teams up with a pioneer woman to escort three women committed to a mental institution hundreds of miles. Alongside Jones is an ensemble cast, some with small roles, that includes Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada), Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby), Miranda Otto (War of the Worlds) and James Spader (Lincoln).
