Also in Wednesday morning's round-up of news briefs: IDFA, the world's biggest documentary film festival picks its opening feature. Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter are set for London Film Festival honors. Wes Anderson adds to his next project. And Ryan Reynolds eyes a psychological thriller.
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The adaptation process is always a tricky one, but Oliver Stone had to make some especially tough choices in editing his big-screen version of Don Winslow’s Savages – and as a result, scenes with Uma Thurman, one of his cast’s biggest names, were left on the cutting room floor.
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Though he plays one of the great roués of literature – the social climbing, bloomer-dropping hero at the center of Guy de Maupassant’s 1895 novel – the focus on Robert Pattinson in Bel Ami is notably above the belt. This is certainly true in the literal sense, where first-time directing team Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod lavish attention on Pattinson’s extraordinary face, even get a little lost in it at times. But it also feels like the source of a larger lack – that of the libidinous physicality and charismatic breadth of a well-rounded scoundrel.
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Remember that 1998 movie adaptation of the old British TV show The Avengers, starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman? Me neither, but set artist Stephen Morahan does — if only because he was reminded after working on this week's Marvel blockbuster of the same name: "[I]t looks a bit odd on your resume. So, I made this before, now it's something completely different. And when you talk about it, people don't even know about the other film. it didn't do very well. I mean, that's another big difference, too. The original Avengers was a big flop. It bombed." [Huffington Post]
I'm not sure if Uma Thurman's character Rebecca Duvall on NBC's Smash is supposed to be all that convincing as Marilyn Monroe -- the subject of the Broadway show-within-the-TV show, in case you've been living under a rock -- but a sneak peek at next week's episode offers a snippet of Thurman's singing chops and, well... let's just say, it's good to know she'll only be around for a five-episode arc. Watch Thurman in a musical scene from her upcoming guest turn, decked out in a platinum blonde wig and singing about Freud, after the jump.
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Poor Robert Pattinson: The weight of proving himself, in a movie that doesn’t have the words “Twilight” and “Saga” in the title, is shaping up to be heavier than a vampire’s curse. In last year’s Water for Elephants, he had a charming naivete, a seemingly natural shyness that was wholly inoffensive, if not exactly memorable. And as social schemer Georges Duroy in Bel Ami, playing here at the Berlinale out of competition on the festival’s next-to-last day, he works harder to redeem himself than any actor should have to: He applies a scowl from Column A with an eyebrow furrow from Column B to express displeasure; Smirk No. 4 denotes a moment of extreme hubris. The effect is like watching an athlete trying not to break a sweat – you might want to root for him, but there’s a part of you that just wants him to let it all out already.
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Chances are at least a few of your casual conversations about Bridesmaids have revolved around the scene in which Melissa McCarthy is forced to use a bridal shop sink as a toilet. The true beauty of that scene was Kristen Wiig’s Annie, sweat-drenched, trying to stay composed while she was berated over choosing a restaurant that caused some serious gastrointestinal horrors for the ladies. Not to suggest that McCarthy doesn’t deserve the praise; she’s a terrific actress (Sookie forever!).
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Most audiences will have to wait until this spring to glimpse Twilight vamp Robert Pattinson as a rascally womanizer in the period drama Bel Ami, but select lucky Belgian fans got a chance to screen the film early this week. Since the trades have yet to pass judgment, let's take a look at what the netizens had to say in their Bel Ami fan reviews: "Amazing!" "Stunning!" "A little bit psycho!" And, oh my -- "sexy thrusting!" More waxing poetic over RPattz's heavenly buttcrack (and oh yeah, his performance) after the jump.
Exciting news, world. Robert Pattinson has advanced from respectfully romancing teen virgins onscreen to defiling wealthy, middle-aged wives (played by Oscar-nominated actresses, no less) in pursuit of upward mobility. Or wealth. Or maybe just acceptance as a serious actor. (Look at him in a period piece with Kristen Scott Thomas!) Either way, jump ahead to see our little Edward Cullen mature into a scheming, sexing cad in the trailer for Bel Ami.
Though a U.S. release date has yet to be set, Twi-hards are already squeeing with anticipation for Robert Pattinson's period adaptation Bel Ami, in which the Twilight star plays a turn of the century dandy sleeping his way through the ranks of Parisian high society. Which means he gets up close and personal (and hot and heavy and between the sheets) with pretty much every woman in sight, as seen in a new batch of pics that have surfaced online.
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