“Media culture is a monstrous thing,” Pattinson lamented Wednesday afternoon, jamming fries into his mouth between puffs on his electronic cigarette. “You can’t win. The annoying thing is that you can’t attack them, but you can’t defend yourself. The best thing you could possibly do is punch a paparazzi and give them their big payday.”
The 26-year-old actor has run a gantlet of publicity this week that was nominally about promoting his new film, “Cosmopolis,” which opens Friday.
Sitting alongside Pattinson for moral support at the Mandarin Oriental hotel on Columbus Circle was “Cosmopolis” director David Cronenberg. The Canadian filmmaker, whose challenging art house films almost never garner such wide attention, was there as a sort of buffer but also appeared to be quietly amused by the media circus. The actor’s manager would not allow Pattinson to sit alone for an interview with The Times, and even suggested that reporters not ask him about his personal life, or “Twilight.”
Entertainment One picked up Cosmopolis as a finished film just ahead of its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film opened soon after its somewhat disappointing box office debut in Cronenberg’s native Canada, although the barrage of press in the U.S. surrounding the film’s main star, Robert Pattinson, and his legion of die-hard fans may provide the title some reversal of fortune at least initially. Beyond the hype, it should also play well to Cronenberg’s most ardent fans noted eOne’s VP theatrical, marketing and distribution Dylan Wiley. “I think this movie is Cronenberg at his most ‘Cronenbergiest,” said Wiley. Pattinson and Cronenberg “have a wide audience and if they catch on, we’ll take it out as wide as it will go.” Wiley noted that the natural audiences for Pattinson, Cronenberg and Cosmopolis novelist David DeLillo don’t “share much overlap,” so the potential appeal is wide. “On the marketing side, it’s about harnessing the multiple awareness we already have. Obviously Pattinson has his fan-base and Don LeLillo has his target audience. Cronenberg has a bit older, smart and affluent following along with younger males and the hipster crowd.”
“To Rob’s credit, he has fulfilled everything he’s been asked to do and more,” said Wiley. “It’s a testament to him personally and also about what he feels about this movie and what it means to him and his development as an actor. [For him] the focus has been only on the movie. He’s been very professional in keeping the focus on his work for Cosmopolis.” The film’s U.S. release this weekend had already been pre-set months ago. “We’re doing an accelerated platform release, playing the Landmark in Los Angeles and the Sunshine and Lincoln Center in New York,” said Wiley. “Cronenberg will do Q&As at Lincoln Center. We know the audiences there will be naturally huge for him because of the number of fans he has in New York, and we expect the film to play there a long time.Next week, we’ll add 20 markets and then around the 31st, we’ll add more which will bring the film up to about 50 markets.”
If you can get past the psychological density of the source material (Don DeLillo’s 2003 novel) and the tabloid noise around the star, this mesmerizing mind-bender ought to prove two things: (1) Robert Pattinson really can act; (2) Director David Cronenberg never runs from a challenge. Pattinson stars as Eric Packer, a master of the universe at 28 but still helpless to stop his financial world from collapsing as he rides around Manhattan in a white stretch limo. Destination: haircut. That’s it: one day, one limo. But DeLillo crowded that day with incident. And Cronenberg, a master recalling his surreal work on eXistenZ and Naked Lunch, adapts the novel with a poet’s eye and a keen ear for language. Eric has hermetically sealed himself inside a limo designed to block out every trace of the outside world. Inside, Eric can ignore the Occupy Wall Street-like protests from the 99 percent, consult with his geek chief (Jay Baruchel) and his money guru (Emily Hampshire), submit to a prostate exam, have sex with his mistress (Juliette Binoche), and get out for disturbing meetings with his wife (Sarah Gadon) and a disgruntled former employee (Paul Giamatti). Working with gifted cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, Cronenberg creates a crumbling world in microcosm. In this fever dream of a movie, Pattinson is incendiary, notably in a climactic gun scene with the great Giamatti. Cosmopolis, demanding as it is daring, is no easy ride. I mean that as high praise.
Courtesy of eOnefilmsUS, we are hosting a giveaway for a Cosmopolis Prize pack that includes the book, the soundtrack and a movie poster.
To enter just leave a comment below. We will number the comments and pick a winner using random.org. You have until tomorrow 8am EDT to enter. One entry per person please.
Entertainment One has just provided us the following information for Cosmopolis showings. Tickets for LA & NY Showings are on sale now. Links are below:
We will have more information on where to buy them in the rest of the country soon.
ENTERTAINMENT ONE TO BRING DAVID CRONENBERG THRILLER
COSMOPOLIS
TO US THEATRES ON AUGUST 17
LOS ANGELES/TORONTO – Entertainment One Films US is thrilled to announce the US release date for David Cronenberg’s COSMOPOLIS has been set for August 17, 2012. The film had its world premiere at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.
COSMOPOLIS will open in New York and Los Angeles before expanding into additional markets.
From director David Cronenberg (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, DEAD RINGERS, THE FLY, EASTERN PROMISES) and based on the prophetic novel by Don DeLillo, comes COSMOPOLIS, a contemporary thriller that turns into a wild, hypnotic odyssey through our new millennium’s obsessions with power, money, control, information, technology, violence, sex, mortality, revolution, destruction and ultimately, redemption.
Unfolding in a single cataclysmic day, the story follows Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) – a 28-year old financial whiz kid and billionaire asset manager – as he heads out in his tricked-out stretch limo to get a haircut from his father’s old barber, while remotely wagering his company’s massive fortune on a bet against the Chinese Yuan. Packer’s luxe trip across the city quickly becomes dizzyingly hellish as he encounters explosive city riots, a parade of provocative visitors, and is thrust into a myriad of intimate encounters. Having started the day with everything, believing he is the future, Packer’s perfectly ordered, doubt-free world is about to implode.
COSMOPOLIS also stars Juliette Binoche, Sarah Gadon, Mathieu Amalric, Jay Baruchel, Kevin Durand, K’Naan and Emily Hampshire, with Samantha Morton and Paul Giamatti.
Cosmopolis is produced by Paulo Branco of Alfama Films and Martin Katz of Prospero Pictures, and is co-produced by Grégoire Melin of Kinology.
Entertainment One is also thrilled to bring COSMOPOLIS to audiences in Canada on June 8, 2012 and to UK theatres on June 15, 2012.
Thinking of Rob is not affiliated with Robert Pattinson or his management in any way.
There is no copyright infringement intended on this blog. If you are the original owner of any media used and would like it removed, we will be happy to do so, please contact us.
Copyright and Trademark Notice
All original content on this site, including any manipulations or enhancements, is the sole copyright of ThinkingofRob™ and ToR™.
Thinking of Rob 