Moore Maps The Stars For Cronenberg
Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 1:20PM 
JA from MNPP here, checking in with some movie news while Nathaniel heads off to fair Nashville - have you been following the progress of David Cronenberg's next film, the one called Map to the Stars? He's been speaking of making this movie, apparently a Hollywood satire of some sort, since way back in 2006. His then-muse Viggo Mortensen was going to star; as time passed it looked like it would be Viggo alongside Cronenberg's now-muse Robert Pattinson, with Rachel Weisz as the female lead. About a month ago Weisz dropped out and we were worried that the movie might not be happening (especially since Cronenberg's trying acting again in Luca Guadagnino's next flick)...
... but fear no more! Deadline's got word that the goddess Julianne Moore and the, uh, not-goddess John Cusack have now joined the film, and that it will be filming in July (in Toronto, of course). Julianne Moore in a David Cronenberg movie just about makes me wanna click my heels together and perform a dance routine down the street, and is plenty to overcome my, uh, apathy, regarding Cusack. And yes, it does seem that Cusack is replacing Viggo in the picture, so it will be Robert Pattinson and John Cusack as the male leads. I'm sure some of you will not take kindly to that; I personally thought Pattinson was fantastic in Cosmopolis, though.
Also on board is Sarah Gadon - if you've seen anything made with the name "Cronenberg" on it in the past three years, you have seen her. She played Michael Fassbender's wife in A Dangerous Method, and Robert Pattinson's wife in Cosmopolis, and she was the virus-stricken celebrity at the center of David's son Brandon Cronenberg's body-horror piece Antiviral (which I just reviewed the other day). These fellas sure do love them some Sarah Gadon, it seems.
Reader Comments (10)
Will Julianne ever win a competitive Oscar?
I've never thought of Cusack as awful, I'm just, as you put it, apathetic toward him. I think he could be good with direction. I'm excited about this one.
Just two days ago I was writing in the comments section that Moore should work with a true auteur again... and here we go.
The prospect of a collaboration between CRONENBERG and La Moore is beyond exiting. I'm in.
I really liked Cosmopolis and I feel I need to see A Dangerous Method again which I liked enough the first time but it still felt a bit stuck in its stage play origins. I thought Pattinson and Gadon were great.
This will be good for Moore. She's not really made the best choices of recent but this sounds interesting.
Sawyer: The problem is, he's been in a lot of dark and edgy projects that don't fit well on him. The last time I think ANYONE (And I'm one of those who react that way) could go WOW, JOHN CUSACK, YOU'RE AWESOME, is in High Fidelity in 2000. After that...he's the definition of eh at his absolute best in this period (the (slightly) underrated The Ice Harvest) and just woeful at his absolute worst (the charisma vaccum of War, Inc., no question).
Apathetic about Cusack after that killer (ouch) performance in The Paperboy? He was very exciting in that, definitely regained my attention.
War Inc. was a nadir in the whole Hollywood problem with dealing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even the satires of the period felt amiss. Ishtar as a satire was better (yes, I invoked Ishtar in a positive context).
But back to Cusack, thought he was great in The Paperboy which surprised me as I heard the term miscast thrown around that performance. His scenes with McConaughey in particular were standouts for both actors.
I adore Sarah, she was the best thing about Cosmopolis. I loved what she did with Elise.
I have never understood John Cusack's career - maybe that's why he doesn't either:
- Tiny parts in the 80s leading up to Say Anything, implying he could have been washed up post-80s (and overshadowed by his sister)
- Movies like The Grifters and Bullets Over Broadway allowed him those leading male roles where he was always a solid second fiddle
- Grosse Point Blank/Midnight in the Garden... made it seem like Hollywood genuinely wanted him as an award-worthy leading man, even if he wasn't there yet
- A brilliant streak of The Thin Red Line, Being John Malkovich and High Fidelity within a short span, where I remember thinking he would be one of my favorites long term
- America's Sweethearts, Serendipity, Identity, Runaway Jury all push him back to "see you on TBS in a couple years" territory (though I own two of those... ahem)
- The random "Grace is Gone" weak Oscar push (remember that?)
- And now I see him in shit like The Raven and his godawful turn in The Paperboy, and I think, how did this happen? Wasn't he bound to be an Oscar perennial at one point?
Anyway, he can totally go either way for me now and I wouldn't dare to predict which will happen. I would think Julianne could help elevate him, but if he was that terrible next to Nicole, maybe hope is lost. I'll see it for her though - not sure about this pairing, but love that she's going in directions I didn't expect. She is getting that Oscar, dammit! It's happening!
I know we all debate the quality of Julianne Moore's MANY upcoming projects (the action film Non-Stop sounds like the twin sister of her dreadful Nic Cage-starrer Next), but how totally awesome is it that a Hollywood actress--already in her early fifties--is still starring in a plethora of different films--both Hollywood mainstream and independent passion projects? She's playing a hippie rock 'n roll mom in What Maisie Knew, the romantic lead in the comedy The English Teacher, the iconic mother-from-hell role in Carrie, and she's still an auteur muse with the new Cronenberg film. I'm just so so so happy that this great actress is still so relevant (along with the other goddess, Nicole Kidman...let's also give respect where it is due) and consistently employed in substantial roles when so many of their contemporaries have fallen off the face of the earth (Renee Zellweger, Diane Lane, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andie MacDowell, etc.)