Robert Pattinson, in a recent profile in Vanity Fair, said “….being in such a specific pigeonhole right now, it’s very strange. Having a persona people recognize, it’s the thing that probably gets you paid the most—but it’s also the thing that virtually every actor in the world doesn’t want. Cause, like, no one would believe me if I wanted to play something ultra-realistic, like a gangster or something.”
And thus, there is the problem the actor now faces. While “Breaking Dawn” will keep the media glare on him for the next couple of years, the actor is already looking for roles that will take him outside of the brooding heartthrob category he seems to have been shoved into. He tried a tragic spin on it with the egregious “Remember Me” and next month, he takes another romantic role in “Water For Elephants” (he tells Vanity Fair that he took the gig when production designer Jack Fisk told him it was going to look like “Days Of Heaven“, on which he did art direction for Terrence Malick back in the ’70s). So while Twihards will still have plenty of Pattinson to swoon over, his next role in “Bel Ami,” he admits, will throw a bit of curveball to his longtime fans.
Based on a book by Guy de Maupassant, “Bel Ami” co-stars Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Christina Ricci and finds Pattinson playing George Duroy, a sexy social climber in turn-of-the-century 1890s Paris, who seduces his way to wealth and fame from a poor beginning. Thurman will play the wife of one of Duroy’s friends who eventually marries Pattinson’s seductive schemer. Kristin Scott Thomas will appear as a woman who overestimates Duroy’s attachment to her. And to hear Pattinson describe his character, he won’t be likable chap.
“We were really true to the book and because the guy is basically a shit who wins everything at the end it’s really difficult to market it – especially with me in it,” Pattinson told Total Film.
“Everyone’s worried that everyone’s going to be thinking, ‘Oh I want him to be nice, he’s got to be nice to all the ladies’,” he explained about the task the film’s marketer’s will have to face.
We guess we’ll have to see how they decide to approach selling the film or if they’ll try and soften up the harder edges of the movie. The film wrapped last spring and still has no release date penciled in — Pattinson says the film is still in editing as they figure out what to do with his character — and it will be interesting to see where this lands. Buzz around the pic has been quiet but maybe producers will trot it out to the festival circuit in the fall to see how it plays before deciding how to get it out there? We’ll have to see how it all plays out, but that’s what we’d do.
an empty bottle head playing an empty bobble head. The movie seems to be one excuse after another for pattinson to flash his manical grin. No plot, or attempt at one, just monotages of pattinson grinning various idiotic grimaces after another. It made me want to buy the boook as it hints at a fantastic storyline but they absolutely butchered it
The Trailer is amazing..you can feel how he calculates his way up the ladder , the expression in the church , the charm he uses to get what he wants just to humiliate the women around him, later. . He is really convincing here…in the beginning he is just a lost man but after he gets more confident its hard not to see what power he possesses over them…calculating and ruthless. Brilliant acting so far..good job Mr. Pattinson. Unfortunately Rob has to work 10 times harder because every move , every facial expression every little detail in his behaviour will be analyzed to the last bits and pieces. I do not know any other actor who has to endure so much scrutiny
Sounds good, i\’ll see it.
No R-pattz, the only thing that\’s shit is your acting.
More proof (as if we need it), that the powers that be do not understand adult audiences.
I, too, hope they don\’t mess with the source material. Come on! You can\’t turn a character who is basically a bad guy and turn him into a \”likable\” character without hurting the movie, the character and everything else. I hope the producers, and whoever ends up distributing it, grows some balls and leaves the movie alone. I like the suggestion of taking it to the festival circuit. That might create some buzz.
Do not water down Bel Ami. The director must stick to his guns and defend his work. Changing the story/tone would be a lack of respect to the book, to de Maupassant and to the actors.
Show the movie in film festivals and see how it is received.
Rob is brave in his movie choices outside Twilight. He must not be limited by this saga.
I hope they won\’t mess with the source material too much. People don\’t need to love this character. It\’s a classic, ffs.
another great book….
Why isn\’t this movie doing the film festival circuit? I\’m indifferent to Robert Pattinson but Kristen Scott Thomas doesn\’t do bad work. Let the film speak for itself.