David Cronenberg talks about his next film Maps to the Stars with Robert Pattinson, hopes Viggo Mortensen will join

Though our own Chris Bumbray felt David Cronenberg’s latest COSMOPOLIS to be a “bore”, the word I’ve been hearing is that it is in fact quite good and definitely a return to a style of filmmaking more in line with his earlier works. I’ve also heard that x-factor Robert Pattinson acquits himself quite well under the divisive filmmaker’s direction (a surprise no doubt to many a TWILIGHT hater).

Whatever the case may be, it seems there is some rapport there between the two, as The Playlist reports that Pattinson will be starring in Cronenberg’s next film MAPS TO THE STARS. Not only that, Cronenberg hopes his frequent collaborator Viggo Mortensen (A DANGEROUS METHOD, EASTERN PROMISES, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) will be joining them as well.

MAPS TO THE STARS is described as “a dark comedic drama about two child actors ruined by Hollywood’s depravity.” Cronenberg tells The Playlist that the film is “very extreme.” He adds, “It’s not obviously a very big commercial movie, and even as an independent film it’s difficult. MAPS TO THE STARS is completely different [from COSMOPOLIS]… it’s very acerbic and satirical, it’s a hard sell.”

“It’s not a go picture. We have a script that I love that [L.A. screenwriter Bruce Wagner] wrote. It’s a very difficult film to get made as was COSMOPOLIS actually. Whether I can get this movie to happen, I tried it five years ago, I couldn’t get it made, so I still might not be able to get it made.”

Financing fell through for the film five years ago which is what killed it. Cronenberg warns that even now money has not been completely secured. C’mon, people!

But should this go through, MAPS TO THE STARS would – unbelievably – mark the first time Cronenberg has ever shot a film in the United States.

“Well, MAPS TO THE STARS is an L.A. story and I really felt that is something I could not create on a set in Toronto. I would want to shoot in Los Angeles… America is very familiar to me since I was a kid, my father was born in Baltimore. And it’s not like I haven’t wanted to, but it’s just the weirdness of co-productions and so-on and money things, really — the expense of shooting in some cities in America. So I actively would like to be shooting in L.A. for at least part of this movie, but once again with budgetary problems… I just don’t know if I will be able to, but I would like to.”

COSMOPOLIS opens this month in both the U.K. and Canada, and then later this summer in the United States.