There’s one thing we know for certain about Robert Pattinson: He can act. But can he direct? It looks like the answer is yes.
The actor made his feature film debut with the 2013 movie The Lost City, which he also co-wrote and co-produced. He then went on to star in Bel Ami in 2014 and The Revenant in 2015, both of which he also directed. In between those two films, he also co-starred in Mad Max: Fury Road and Bridge of Spies, both of which he also co-directed. And now that he’s returned from his honeymoon, it appears that Pattinson has a new directorial project that he’s been actively working on.
The Los Angeles Times reported this week that Pattinson has been seeking to remake a 1951 classic, The Lady Eve. The movie explores the tumultuous affair between an American heiress (Gale Young) and a married man (Ray Milland). Milland cheats on his wife with Young, and she ends up committing suicide. She leaves behind a letter explaining that she did it because she was scared that her husband would murder her and dump her body in the ocean. In the end, Milland’s character is shown writing to Young’s washed-up ghost, offering his heartfelt apology.
Pattinson has co-written the remake with David LeRoy MacLeman, who also wrote the script for The Lost City. The duo had previously worked together on The Rover, a crime drama about an injured dog who must struggle for survival in the bleak Australian outback. MacLeman also scripted the upcoming thriller Triple 9 for Pattinson, based on the French novel Les Trois Mousquetaires by Leopoldo Durante.
While the finished product might not be out just yet (the shooting is reportedly going to be wrapped up in April), the trailer for Remember Me drops today and it looks absolutely breathtaking. It is also, in a word, perfect. The trailer opens on a black-and-white image of a beautiful woman walking through a forest; her long, dark hair spills over her shoulders and she is wearing a white dress with yellow and orange flowers.
What is immediately clear is that this is no ordinary trailer. The footage is striking and holds your attention thanks to some incredible cinematography and amazing performances from its cast.
The movie itself is also beautifully shot, though the lush forests and sun-drenched beaches of Croatia might not be the most iconic locations you’re probably thinking of. Instead, the eye is immediately drawn to the exquisite costumes, set design and lighting. It’s evident that a lot of thought went into every aspect of the movie’s look and feel.
The cast list is truly incredible, with Oscar winner Patricia Clarkson playing the daughter of a wealthy British inventor who has just inherited his company. She learns that her father (Pattinson) invented a time machine, and decides to use it to go back in time and meet him when he was still young and penniless. She then recruits the help of an American billionaire (Clarkson’s co-star from Moneyball, John C. Reilly) to help her retrieve the machine and bring it back to life.
Reilly’s character is a doctor who has traveled from the future — where he is now regarded as a local hero for having cured all diseases – to help Clarkson’s character fix the time machine. Together, they set out to right the wrongs of the past and save her father’s legacy.
Other highlights include Christina Hendricks as the wife of the inventor, with whom he had an affair with while she was still married to her first husband (played by Robert Wagner); Elizabeth Taylor as the wife of the American billionaire who hires Taylor’s daughter Melanie (Chloe Grace Moretz) to pose as her maid to trick her husband into marriage; and Ben Kingsley as the inventor’s arrogant, egomaniacal competitor. It is a star-studded cast and one of the most impressive in recent memory.
Why Is This Movie So Important?
It’s not like there aren’t other time travel movies out there. But it’s not often that you get a group of talented Hollywood stars all pitching in on a movie, and in this case, it really pays off. The ensemble cast is incredible, and with the added bonus of some fantastic location filming in Croatia, this could well be one of the greatest time travel movies of all time.
The performances are truly exceptional, with Clarkson, Reilly and more putting in superbly restrained and captivating turns. But the biggest surprise may be the 24-year-old Moretz, who manages to hold her own among the seasoned veterans and prove that she is no longer just a child star. The movie itself was originally intended to be a more serious effort, though it wasn’t hard to tell that something special was brewing. The result is an exhilarating movie that combines edge-of-your-seat action pieces with heartfelt drama and romantic tension. The perfect marriage of form and content.
What Now?
Based on its incredible trailer alone, it would be a dereliction of duty not to seek out this movie. Though it is truly stunning, it is important to remember that it is still in the very early stages of development. But with its stellar cast, unique narrative and exceptional visuals, there is every reason to expect that this will be one of the most popular films of the year when it comes out.
The trailer is very short, running only around five minutes. But even that’s enough to establish a stunning premise riddled with twists and turns. It would take a novel to do this movie justice, but in the meantime, we have the trailer. It would be a great shame if, after seeing this, you didn’t rush out to see the finished product. Or, at least, buy it when it eventually comes out on DVD.