‘The Rover’ director, David Michôd, talked about casting Rob and Guy and their characters in the movie. From the Cannes’ French Press Kit (click on the link to read the full interview and the press kit – in French)
How did you choose your actors?
I had Guy Pearce in mind from the beginning. We needed a man who was his age, who had a quiet and mysterious strength, who had is talent and his extraordinary attention to detail. I didn’t forget the pleasure I had working with him on Animal Kingdom. Rob (Pattinson) came later. We met, I liked him a lot and then he did some screen tests for me, awesome tests, full of life, never forced or artificial, and it was done. And there is something very exciting in having the opportunity to show the world that a star underestimated and reduced to a certain image actually has a wealth of unexploited talent. I quickly found out that Rob is a great actor. And I look forward to everyone can realize the same.
If Guy Pearce’s character is the “Rover”, how do you define Robert Pattinson’s?
He is also a “rover”. Guy is a rover in the sense of “wanderer”. But in classical English, “rover” is also used as affectionate term for a dog. Rob follows Guy everywhere, a bit like a lost dog would.
Australian director David Michôd’s (“Animal Kingdom”) much-anticipated crime drama “The Rover” will premiere out of competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, but before then, here’s an exclusive clip featuring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson.
In the scene we see an intimate and angry conversation between the Pearce character, who seeks revenge from a group of dangerous criminals after they steal his last possession, and Pattinson, one of the criminals left behind after being shot.
In addition to the clip, Michôd also gave an exclusive statement to Indiewire. Check them both out below. A24 opens “The Rover” June 13.
“The Australian Outback of The Rover is a world ten years after a great Western economic collapse. It’s a near future of social and economic decay. Services, utilities, law and order have fallen into dangerous disrepair. And yet people from all corners of the world have come to this place to work the mines that feed the new world alignment, that feed the great powerhouses of this, the Asian century.
The world of the movie, as such, mirrors the American and Australian gold rushes of the 19th century. People are drawn to the land’s mines and with them come the leeches, the refuse, the hustlers and criminals who hope to exploit the mines’ margins.
This isn’t a complete collapse of society – it’s an inversion of present-day global power dynamics. This is Australia as resource-rich Third World country. This is the violence and unrest of contemporary Sierra Leone or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
And at the centre of this world are two men – one, a murderously embittered Australian man, a former soldier who has lost his farm and his family; the other, a simple and naive American boy, too young to remember a time when things were anything other than what they are.”
You can read the whole thing HERE downloading the pdf file, but we are going to post now all quotes from Rob and about Rob + a few very interesting details of the movie.
-> In the DEVELOPMENT & IMPLEMENTATION section of the file, David Michôd talks about casting Rob as Rey (page 6)
(…)
The next step was to build a cast around Pearce that Michôd felt confident in. The global success of Animal Kingdom opened doors for him in Los Angeles, and he was in the privileged position to be able to audition some heavyweights. Working with Casting Director Kirsty McGregor, and Lava Bear’s President of Production Tory Metzger, Michôd spent a lot of time reviewing the work of various actors, so by the time he auditioned Robert Pattinson he had worked out what he wanted for the character of Rey. Michôd had never seen a Twilight film and wasn’t overly familiar with Pattinson, but upon meeting together in LA, and after his audition Pattinson quickly became his favourite for the role. Recalls Michôd: “His performance in the tests was really great and real and moving. What I also liked about him was that it was really quite evident to me from our first conversation that he really wanted to do it.”
The temperatures are rising, the coats are going into storage, and the TV spots are getting more prevalent. That’s right, it’s almost time for summer movie season again. The months of May through August are traditionally the biggest in the multiplex calendar, but the lines have become increasingly blurred in recent years—if “Noah” and “Divergent” didn’t kick off blockbuster season, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” certainly did, and that was three weeks ago.
But even so, things are different from the first weekend of May onwards, with at least one blockbuster hitting every week until mid August or so. So, with the release of season opener “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” approaching (which we’ve already seen, and it’s fair to say that we’re not fans of), we thought we’d help you sort the wheat from the chaff by putting together the 40 films we’re most looking forward to over the next few months.
It’s an egalitarian mix of blockbusters and indies, united only by the fact that we’re looking forward to them, or in some cases we’ve already seen them
1. “The Rover” Cast: Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson, Scoot McNairy Synopsis: In a war-torn future beset by financial collapse, a man trudges across the Australian desert to locate his stolen car and secure the mysterious cargo found inside. Why It’s Worth Seeing: This is the first film for director David Michôd since his riveting debut “Animal Kingdom.” It’s been described as an existential western, and sees him reteam with Guy Pearce, with heartthrob Robert Pattinson and character actor favorite Scoot McNairy also on board. Michôd’s debut captured the sweeping scope of early Michael Mann mixed with Werner Herzog’s anthropological analysis of human behavior, crafting a debut that was both terrifying and utterly unforgettable. While he’s taking things in a vaguely sci-fi direction here, Michôd has promised that this will be a relatively grounded affair, a crime picture in the outback that could be indicative of a contemporary mashup of “Wake In Fright” (with the idea of an outsider stranded in the outback) and “Mad Max” (with its emphasis on vehicular action). It’s still under wraps beyond some impressive trailers, but more than anything else, we’re hopeful that a Midnight Screening premiere at Cannes bodes for this being something truly impressive. We’re tantalizingly close to finding out. Release Date: June 13th.
Starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, The Rover is a twist on your standard post-apocalyptic story. It’s not set in some zombie or virus stricken world, it just takes place a decade after society as we know it has collapsed. It then follows a nomadic man (Pearce) who is seeking revenge on a gang of thieves who stole his car, and to get that revenge he’s willing to team up with one of their own (Pattinson).
As you can see from the below trailer, The Rover looks like a beautifully photographed, intense tale of one man who decides to say screw it all and chase down the men who took the one thing he had left. And if you’re the type who instantly dismisses Pattinson because of his Twilight days, this is further evidence as to why he shouldn’t simply be ignored. Check it out.
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