Johnny Depp and Kate Moss have inspired a song. L.A. musical duo, He Met Her , has put out an EP called Love Heroes that’s influenced by famous couples throughout history, and one of the tracks, “Toknight We Ride (Johnny & Kate)” , is a dreamy tribute to the Pirates of the Caribbean star and the super model, who had a tempestuous four-year affair in the 1990s. Although the former couple are only referenced in the title, the song’s hedonistic lyrics include the line, “I’m on my Peter Pan, lost boys in NVR LAND,” which, I hear is a reference to Depp’s role as Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie in the 2004 movie, Lost in Neverland , though he was no longer with Moss at that point. You can hear the song and see the lyrics in this subtitled video, which stars He Met Her’s Mowgli Moon and Rocky Chance cavorting in Acapulco. Watch: He Met Her — ‘Toknight We Ride (Johnny & Kate)’ And here’s another variation on the “We Ride” theme featuring Depp’s animated turn in Rango: This Afternoon, We Ride (Johnny & Rango) Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Possibly setting a record for most images of needles piercing human skin in a motion picture, Brandon Cronenberg’s syringe-tastic Antiviral suggests the fledgling filmmaker has some corporeal-horror preoccupations in common with famous dad David . Set in an icy near-future where celebrities’ diseases are sold like crack vials, this creepy speculative satire tends to hit the same notes in its dissection of seriously unhealthy celebrity obsession, but exerts a queasy fascination regardless. Overlong Canadian production may prove too clinically distanced for gorehounds and too yucky for specialty auds, though the Cronenberg imprimatur is sure to stir theatrical interest. Inspired by a particularly nasty case of the flu he came down with in film school, Cronenberg hit upon the ingeniously out-there concept of a free market for famous people’s germs. As an indictment of a star-struck population already addicted to celebrity Twitter feeds and sex tapes, the message couldn’t be plainer or more literal: Our media-obsessed culture is seriously sick. The viewer’s guide to this distasteful world of corporatized disease exchange is Syd March ( Caleb Landry Jones, X-Men: First Class ), an employee at the white-walled Lucas Clinic , where customers pay large sums to be infected with, say, a herpes simplex virus harvested from the latest hot young starlet. In order to maintain a competitive edge, the Lucas Clinic practices its own form of copy protection, altering each specimen to be non-contagious. Syd, however, has found a secret way around these measures and runs a black-market sideline in live viruses, which he smuggles out of HQ in his own body. For him, catching someone else’s cold isn’t an occupational hazard but a daily necessity. But the operation backfires when he injects himself with a rare specimen extracted from celebrity Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon) . The disease takes hold far too quickly, and when news breaks of Hannah’s untimely death, Syd realizes he has only a little time left, during which he is continually ambushed by rivals and collectors who covet his fatal affliction, never mind that it causes him to develop unsightly lesions and vomit chocolate-colored blood all over Arvinder Grewal’s chillingly sterile production design. Gradually establishing its ground rules in deadpan fashion, the script eventually reveals, consciously or not, a certain structural resemblance to the elder Cronenberg’s Videodrome . Like that prescient 1983 splatter classic, Antiviral takes aim at an industry equipped to service ever baser and more twisted human needs, bringing down the system through the violent rebellion of a disgruntled, self-contaminated drone. The perpetually scowling Jones isn’t the most charismatic protagonist here and doesn’t need to be; no one in this pathetic simulacrum of the future is worth rooting for or emulating. Whatever creative genes he may have inherited, Brandon Cronenberg has his own distinct flair for the grotesque. Among the weirder images and innovations here are a butcher shop that sells what appear to be cuts of meat replicated from celebrity tissue; a TV network that beams out updates 24-7 on stars’ body parts, with an emphasis on crotch photos and colonoscopy footage; a doctor ( Malcolm McDowell , quite at home in this bizarro universe) with skin grafts from four different people on one arm; and recurring images of needles being stuck in all manner of imaginative and unwelcome places. On a more prosaic level, the film suffers from basic pacing issues, particularly in its increasingly slack and repetitive second half, by which point the moral rot of nonstop celebrity worship has been duly beaten to death. Icky though it is, Antiviral never builds the sort of character investment or narrative momentum that would allow its visceral horrors to seriously disturb, rather than seeming like choice gross-out moments lovingly designed for maximum viewer recoil. With its flat, detached tone and fixed camera setups, the pic consistently opts for grisly dark comedy over horror-thriller tension, a strategy that does pay off with a certain gruesome logic in the film’s nightmarish final image. D.p. Karim Hussain’s crisp, high-definition images rep the chief standout of a decent tech package. More on Antiviral: Antiviral Trailer: Get Squirmy With Brandon Cronenberg’s Sci-Fi Body Horror Creep-Out Follow Movieline on Twitter.
This week in Netflix SKINstant gratification, Paz de la Huerta will test the limits of your control by staying completely naked throughout The Limits of Control (2009), and Juliette Lewis lets out her juglets in Picture Claire (2001). Then you’re in for more full-frontal since hard-bodied babe Patricia McKenzie takes it all off in David Cronenberg ‘s Cosmopolis (2012), and Hazel Ann Crawford does the same in Postmortem (1998). Finally, Kate Capshaw bares a little butt, and Carolyn Perry shows off the full enchilada in A Little Sex (1982). See pics after the jump!
I know none of you David Cronenberg fans out there are super juiced about the Videodrome remake at Universal first time feature director Adam Berg is in talks to helm. Many of you may even be straight up livid . But there’s a silver lining to this latest move on Hollywood’s part to unnecessarily remake our best-loved film classics… That would be “Carousel,” the 2009 commercial directed by Berg, commissioned to promote the company’s Philips Cinema 21:9 LCD televisions. If you recall, “Carousel” was a visual marvel of a short that maneuvered its way through a cops vs. clown robber shoot-out in one glorious continuous CG-aided tracking shot; it went on to win the prestigious Grand Prix award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival and, apparently, earned Swedish music video veteran Berg Hollywood notice. So sure, it might make your cinephile skin crawl to hear that Universal’s Videodrome update aims “to modernize the concept, infusing it with the possibilities of nano-technology and blow it up into a large-scale sci-fi action thriller.” I mean, whatever. And yes, Michael Bay’s frequent Transformers scribe Ehren Kruger ( The Ring , Scream 3 , Reindeer Games ) is writing the screenplay. You probably can’t expect anything really resembling Cronenberg’s totally ’80s VHS/cable TV techno-paranoia thriller in Videodrome 2.0. , but on the bright side, it could be a watch-worthy directorial debut. Long live the new flesh? [ Deadline ]
Russian judge deems the girl group ‘crudely undermined social order’ after staging a protest against president Vladimir Putin. By James Montgomery Pussy Riot are held before appearing in a Moscow court on Friday Photo: Natalie Kolesnikova/ AFP/ GettyImages
‘Twilight’ actor takes a turn for the Cronenberg in his new existential thriller, in theaters today (August 17). By Josh Wigler Robert Pattinson in “Cosmopolis” Photo: Entertainment One
Twi-hards — and the media — have certainly been paying more attention to David Cronenberg since the filmmaker cast Robert Pattinson in his latest, Cosmopolis , but they shouldn’t expect him to reciprocate. Movieline pal Grace Randolph caught The Fly director and his star on the red carpet at the New York premiere of Cosmopolis , where Cronenberg shrugged off the impact of Pattinson’s reported break-up with his Twilight star Kristen Stewart . “Honestly, that doesn’t touch me, and it doesn’t touch the movie,” said Cronenberg. “It’s really irrelevant. Not to [Rob] obviously, but to me and the movie. It doesn’t change the movie at all,” Cronenberg added. “That’s all media stuff.” The media was in full frenzy at the Peggy Siegal Company and Gucci-hosted premiere, which took place at the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan, and Pattinson was their number-one target. Despite the crush, RPatz seemed to be enjoying the attention, and at one point was caught on Randolph’s camera saying: “The only thing I can be scared of is being bad.” Let’s see what the reviews say. Check out Grace’s interviews below. Watch It on YouTube. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Some time after turning down a role in 2010’s Expendables (the part he was offered lacked substance, legend has it) Jean-Claude Van Damme thought better of opting out of the Sylvester Stallone throwback, which went onto become a hit. But perhaps things worked out for the best: In this week’s Expendables 2 , Van Damme steals away with the spotlight as the eccentric and hilariously disdainful uber-villain Jean Vilain (yes, really) with an over-the-top performance that called for full commitment to character on set. At least, Van Damme believed his turn as Vilain required cultivating an icy rapport with his fellow action veterans on set. And so as Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger , Bruce Willis and Co. chummed it up during filming , the Muscles from Brussels stayed in character so well he only made nice after the bulk of filming wrapped. “I said to [Sylvester] Stallone, ‘How do you want me as a villain? Do you want me, like, an extravagant villain, or do you want a guy who’s completely serious and believes in what he’s doing and why he’s doing that,'” Van Damme recalled to journalists recently in Los Angeles. “Then I said, ‘By the way — why am I doing that?’ and he said, ‘Because you love money.’ I said, ‘Fine.’ So, I became that type of villain.” So committed was Van Damme to Vilain’s persona, he even found himself sneering at the crew. “When I saw all those cameras around me, I said, ‘Who are those bunch of clowns looking at us with those lenses and the lights and everything?’ I was really into the atmosphere of Expendables .” When it came to treating his peers and personal heroes like enemies, Van Damme didn’t hold back. “I’ll tell you what, those guys were like role models for me, because we have to be honest, we need to look at something to have a goal,” he recalled. “I saw Rambo . I saw Rocky . I saw Conan . I saw Die Hard . So to me, they were like heroes. I was back in Belgium watching them on the screen, buying tickets and dreaming of becoming like them. I wanted to be an actor since I was eleven, twelve years old, and now here I am and they’re chasing me.” Van Damme credits his acting skills to having worked with directors like Ringo Lam ( City on Fire ), who directed him in Maximum Risk (1996), Replicant (2001), and In Hell (2003). He counts Kirk Douglas and Charles Bronson among his screen idols and emphasizes the importance of finding truth within a scene, though his proclivity for doing something different in each take gave producer Stallone and director Simon West a challenge and a boon in the editing room. “If you do a good take,” Van Damme said, “you cannot repeat the same one.” His chilly treatment of his on-screen rivals was an extension of that truth-seeking imperative. “When I came on the set I didn’t talk to nobody,” Van Damme remembered. “I didn’t want to see them because, you know, Arnold is like bop, bop, bop and I was talking more to Stallone about the part than anything else. So, I believe, and I felt when I was looking at them, it was like, ‘Who are you?’ Nothing [in] the eyes. I felt like I didn’t like them. I took it very seriously.” “Of course, when the movie was finished I was like, ‘Hey, guys, I really admire you, but I didn’t talk to you in the beginning because I wanted to have that type atmosphere, that type of tension.’ I think you can see that when you look at the lens, when I look at all them and I’m like, ‘Go down to the floor, guys, bark all of you like dogs.’ It’s hard for me to say that to my heroes, but it was the only way, and then when the movie was going to end, that’s when I started to knock on trailers and say hello to everybody. ‘Hey, Chuck [Norris], how are you?’” Stay tuned for more from The Expendables 2 , which hits theaters Friday. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also in Monday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, Martin Scorsese ‘s Frank Sinatra pic gets a writer. Harvey Weinstein is tapped to MC Toronto Film Festival -Asian film event. Haley Joel Osment’s Sassy Pants is heading to theaters and Jodie Foster boards a mob drama as director for Showtime. Harvey Weinstein to MC Toronto Asian Film Summit The Weinstein Company chief will act as the master of ceremonies for the closing banquet of the event, hosted by the Toronto International Film Festival that will spotlight the relationship between East and West. Previously announced guests include Jackie Chan who will attend as Guest of Honor and MPAA Chairman Senator Chris Dodd. “We’ve received tremendous support and interest from the industry and we’re confident this event will help foster deeper relationships and generate new business opportunities between key film players in the East and West,” said TIFF CEO Piers Handling. Sassy Pants Heads to Theaters North American rights to the coming-of-age comedy/drama have been picked up by Phase 4 Films. Haley Joel Osment, Ashely Rickards (MTV’s Awkward ) and Anna Gunn (AMC’s Breaking Bad ) star in the film about teen Bethany who flees her over-protective mother and goest to live with her dad where she forms a bond with his much younger boyfriend. The film, which made its world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, will release the title in theaters and VOD this fall. Around the ‘net… Cosmopolitan Editor Helen Gurley Brown Dead at 90 The former Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief died at 90 in New York shortly after being admitted to a hospital. She edited the magazine for 32 years and was the author of the groundbreaking Sex and the Single Girl . During her tenure at Cosmopolitan she became known for encouraging women to have sex regardless of marital status. She said her goal was to let tell readers “how to get everything out of life – the money, recognition, success, men, prestige, authority, dignity – whatever she is looking at through the glass her nose is pressed against,” BBC reports . Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master to Head to Toronto The Toronto International Film Festival’s Artistic Director Cameron Bailey tweeted that The Master will join the lineup at the event, which opens September 6th. The film, which debuts in Venice, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams in a story said to be inspired by the early days of Scientology, THR reports . Billy Ray to Write Sinatra for Martin Scorsese Universal Pictures has tapped Billy Ray to write the script for the Frank Sinatra biopic that Martin Scorsese will direct. Scorsese is currently filming Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf Of Wall Street , Deadline reports . Jodie Foster to Direct & Produce Mob Drama This is her first move behind-the-camera for television. She’ll direct and executive produce Angie’s Body for Showtime. The concept centers on a shrew, sexy and sometimes lethal woman who runs a family-based crime syndicate, Deadline reports .
Kicking off a media blitz of post-scandal promotion for David Cronenberg ‘s Cosmopolis , Robert Pattinson taped his first one-on-one interview with Jon Stewart tonight, hit the film’s NYC premiere, and is slated to appear Tuesday at the New York Stock Exchange to ring the Opening Bell . Folks familiar with the Don DeLillo book on which Cosmopolis is based, however, know that having financial prodigy/bored billionaire Eric Packer at the controls of America’s financial infrastructure would be, in fact, a terrible idea. But anyway! RPattz alert! Pattinson stars as Packer in Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis , which opens Friday in limited release and should prove an even more fascinating career milestone for the Twilight idol then previously thought, given girlfriend Kristen Stewart’s headline-grabbing dalliance with Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders. Pattinson’s media tour, after weeks of hiding out in relative seclusion, also heralds his most thematically-ambitious, challenging project to date and will redefine how many mainstream critics and audiences perceive him. The RPattz tour began tonight at the film’s premiere in New York (see above picture of Pattinson in appropriate “I Will Survive” outfit) with an appearance on The Daily Show , which according to Tweets from folks in the audience like devoted Pattinson blogger @ tinkrbe1l3 , does cover the Stewart betrayal: There was a Freudian slip. I don't think Rob meant to say “it does” so quickly when Jon said something about these things ending ur world.— Tinker Bell (@tinkrbe1l3) August 13, 2012 Tomorrow morning at 9:30 am, Pattinson and Cronenberg will ring the NYSE bell, followed by a visit to Good Morning America and New York Times chat on Wednesday and a massive 30-minute sit-down with MTV on Thursday. In any case, it’s all good publicity for The Cronenberg, right? Middle America and the Twilight faithful, get ready to see RPattz like never before. You really probably are not at all ready for this jelly. Cosmopolis Synopsis: From director David Cronenberg (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, DEAD RINGERS, THE FLY, EASTERN PROMISES) and based on the prophetic novel by Don DeLillo, comes COSMOPOLIS, a contemporary thriller that turns into a wild, hypnotic odyssey through our new millennium’s obsessions with power, money, control, information, technology, violence, sex, mortality, revolution, destruction and ultimately, redemption. Unfolding in a single cataclysmic day, the story follows Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) – a 28-year old financial whiz kid and billionaire asset manager – as he heads out in his tricked-out stretch limo to get a haircut from his father’s old barber, while remotely wagering his company’s massive fortune on a bet against the Chinese Yuan. Packer’s luxe trip across the city quickly becomes dizzyingly hellish as he encounters explosive city riots, a parade of provocative visitors, and is thrust into a myriad of intimate encounters. Having started the day with everything, believing he is the future, Packer’s perfectly ordered, doubt-free world is about to implode. Produced by Paulo Branco and Martin Katz, COSMOPOLIS also stars Juliette Binoche, Sarah Gadon, Mathieu Amalric, Jay Baruchel, Kevin Durand, K’Naan, Emily Hampshire with Samantha Morton and Paul Giamatti. COSMOPOLIS will be opening in New York at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center on August 17th. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
