Though most of the films at next month’s Cannes Film Festival are keeping their plot details and advertisements to a bare minimum, David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars is still moving full force ahead with its marketing campaign.
Last week, we brought you the first official trailer, which embraced the sex, violence and intrigue of its tantalizing subject matter. Today, a set of new images centering on the screwed-up Hollywood dynasty at the film’s center has hit the web. Though the majority of the shots focus on the characters plated by Robert Pattinson (as the family’s limo driver) and Mia Wasikowska (as pyromaniac Agatha), stars John Cusack (as the family patriarch) and Evan Bird (who plays child actor Benjie) can also be seen in the new images, which you can check out below.
The official synopsis reads as follows:
Led by the loathsome yet funny and touching child-star Benjie, we witness the convoluted world of shallow, selfish celebrities and their minions, all of whom are about to be manipulated and destroyed by the young woman who literally represents the fruit of their twisted machinations, Agatha, Benjie’s tormented, apparently psychotic sister. As much as it is a sharp, comic look at a vacant and corrupt world, MAPS TO THE STARS is also a haunting ghost story.
In other words, this sounds like the perfect project for Cronenberg, the avowed provocateur behind such button-pushers as Crash and Videodrome. The fact that Maps to the Stars also boasts a script from Bruce Wagner, a novelist who has made his name critiquing the inner workings of the film industry, also bodes well for it. If you needed any more convincing, the cast also includes Julianne Moore, Olivia Williams and Sarah Gadon – three tremendously talented actresses perfect for the parts of deranged Hollywood starlets.
Though the film will bow at Cannes, eOne hasn’t yet set a date for a U.S. theatrical release. It’s expected that Maps to the Stars will hit screens stateside sometime this fall.
