Kinky, off-center, and borderline inscrutable. Those words have come to define the latter-day work of David Cronenberg, director of Maps To The Stars, the trailer for which you can see above. This macabre drama spotlights a broken legacy of a Hollywood family, each member hiding dirty secrets and bizarre obsessions. Things get psychosexual and even a little supernatural, and early word suggests this moody drama has got something for everybody.
This trailer appears to be a very early peek at the movie - so early, in fact, that it actually looks more like a sizzle reel - so the language and some of the content (LIMO SEX) is a little on the NSFW side. And while it looks plenty chatty, it also seems like the whole thing builds to some violence and/or a tragic death, particularly involving kids. Would YOU let your kid pop up in a Cronenberg movie? I mean, yikes.
Written by Bruce Wagner, the long-in-the-works film re-teams Cronenberg with the actor who may very well be his new muse. Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson previously worked with the director on the wickedly complex and unusual Cosmopolis, which dove into peculiar themes about free market and the dissolution of communication. The movie almost feels like it's in a foreign, possibly invented language itself. Such is the appeal of the mystery of that film, an elegiac story of a Faustian businessman letting the structures surrounding him fall to their destruction. If you've only given it one chance, you may want to consider giving it a second. You can start by giving the trailer a look below:
Pattinson is joined here by a fierce cast. Mia Wasikowska and Julianne Moore are present, making this a strange The Kids Are All Right reunion. Olivia Williams and Sarah Gadon also pop up in the trailer, Gadon being another holdover from Cosmopolis as well as Cronenberg's 2011 film A Dangerous Method. Strangest of all, however, is the presence of John Cusack, who has never previously worked with with the movie's director. Where Cusack stands currently in his career is a bit of a mystery: he's done some dodgy low budget stuff as of late, but teaming with the Canadian mastermind behind Videodrome, The Fly and A History Of Violence is probably a smart decision for the enigmatic actor.
