Of course Water For Elephants was always going to carry the subtitle of What Robert Pattinson Did Next, and as such the myriad fansites dedicated to the Twilight star (my favourite of which is called SpunkRansom) quickly took it to their hearts. But look beyond the name that is top-billed, alongside Reese Witherspoon and everyone’s favourite German Christoph Waltz, and you’ll find a film worthy of watching on its own terms.
There is something fundamentally old-fashioned about the way the romance plays out on screen, and that vintage feel has a lot to do with the authenticity of the period setting, down to the most minute of details. There is a lot of time in the Extra Features spent detailing the near obsessive level of research and painstaking reconstructions that formed the basis for the production and costume designs, and that diligence really shines in the final film.
But Water For Elephants deserves better than that: it is beautifully designed, and wonderfully executed thanks to a head-turning combination of director Francis Lawrence, production designer extraordinaire Jack Fisk and the hugely talented cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. Together, and along with costume designer Jacqueline West, the team create a lavish canvas on which the acting work can be done.
RPattz as he is hideously known to fans and media outlets that should know better has done very well to make Water For Elephants in a gap between Twilight projects, and it stands as a timely reminder that if allowed, the young actor could very well make a second go of an acting career after the Stephanie Meyer franchise has disappeared from the multiplexes for the last time. Though presumably, he’s going to need to make an “off-brand” choice that once and for all puts a stake through the heart of Edward Cullen.
As the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches, television will commemorate the day with specials and documentaries. But at the nation’s cineplexes, there is considerably less ceremony.
Films such as Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center (2006) and Paul Greengrass‘ critically lauded United 93 (2006) found respectable audiences while fending off criticism when sensitivities were still high. The criticism even stung films with a tangential relationship to the attack, such as 2010’s Remember Me. The Robert Pattinson drama featured a 9/11 surprise ending, which took a “drubbing” says producer Nick Osborne.
“Everyone was, to a certain extent, terrified of doing it,” Osborne says. “It’s such a sensitive topic. But it was the right ending.”
The actor talks behind the scenes of the fourth movie, a movie which is going to be as crazy as its filming. It was an intense experience that changed the star.
‘We spent two whole months filming in the same room in front of a green screen.’
As Breaking Dawn part 1 comes out in a little less than two months, Robert Pattinson, in a long interview with Premiere Magazine, goes back to the filming of the fourth film of the Twilight saga. What could only have been an unusual shooting (green screen, honeymoon scene in Brazil, fans going crazy…), turned out to be an intense experience. Indeed, Twilight part 4 took a serious turn and doesn’t hesitate in dealing with sex and blood. You read it right. What some would take for a corny teenage movie, became ‘a weird drama that ventures sometimes towards the horror’, confides Pattinson to Premiere before warning ‘the audience is going to get their money’s worth.’
In this interview, he admits being surprised everyday by the turn of events, shooting took. One that lasted eight months but the end product is going to be worth it. ‘No movie this size dares taking those kind of risks.‘, valuies the actor who jokes about becoming an expert in ‘oral Caesarean’ (those who read the book will understand) and why he felt like the guinea pig of a weird experiment. Something David Cronenberg didn’t disapprove of.
The 25 years old gets loose and multiples anecdotes and secrets , as if the way shooting turn and the near end of the Twilight saga freed him. Rob talks about the most improbable scenes, the last day of filming and Kristen Stewart. The actress who was too interviewed by our magazine. She also confirms the feeling of eeriness on set. ‘I sometimes felt like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day”
In this interview Pattinson also breaks the bland image, the movies seem to have stuck on him. He still causes crowds to show up everywhere he goes. (He talks about a little misadventure in Brazil that could have made a movie on its own.) But he did put some distance between him and the hysteria of fans and doesn’t want to be trapped anymore in a phenomenon that escapes him.
Thus, when he recalls the filming of Breaking Dawn, he doesn’t spare the Twihards that will most likely be outraged by the liberties the movie took from Stephenie Meyer’s book. Liberties, that Bill Condon, at the helm of this movie, granted himself. Something that his predecessors never dared doing.
‘Too bad‘ for the fans, tells Rob. They’ll have to follow anyway.The movie seems so crazy he asked often the crew ‘Are you sure we’re filming Twilight?Isn’t it supposed to be harmless and PG-13?’
Vanity Fair: You also shot Bel Ami, by Guy de Maypassant’s novel with Robert Pattinson
Uma Thurman: Robert is beautiful. Almost more beautiful in person than on screen. He is also a good actor. He will make a great career, there will not be only Twilight in his career
You have to be under 13-16 to vote. The Teen Awards vote is restricted to UK voting only. Voting closes at 11.40am on 10th September 2011. The Radio 1 Teen Awards are on Sunday, October 9
Cronenberg has just finished shooting “Cosmopolis”, based on a novel by Don DeLillo and produced by Paulo Branco. It’s the first time I have a film competing in a festival, not yet in theaters, and another in post production. Whatever happens, I’ll start the editing this summer and next year you’ll see me again in Venice with “Cosmopolis” and Robert Pattinson, one of the most intense actors of this generation. He’ll blow your mind” (n.b. this interview was done before the Variety interview)
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