Surreal first trailer for David Cronenberg’s sexy thriller Maps to the Stars

David Cronenberg films are never straight forward. Like David Lynch, Cronenberg’s films always have something lingering just beneath the surface that throws audiences for a loop. The man who brought is EXISTENZ, VIDEODROME, NAKED LUNCH, and THE FLY has dabbled in more mainstream fare like A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and EASTERN PROMISES. His last film, COSMOPOLIS, seemed to lean closer to his more surreal work while his upcoming MAPS TO THE STARS is yet another enigma that defies categorization.

Reuniting with his COSMOPOLIS stars Robert Pattinson and Sarah Gadon, MAPS TO THE STARS finally unveiled a rough first trailer that looks more like a pitch reel for potential distributors. Either way, this is our first look at footage from the film including stars Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, and John Cusack as the explore the seedy underside of Hollywood.

Following the lives of Weiss family, an archetypical Hollywood dynasty, Dr. Stafford Weiss is a psychotherapist, who has made a fortune with his self-help manuals; his wife Cristina manages the career of their thirteen-year-old son, Benjie, a child star, who recently came out of a drug rehabilitation program, which he entered at the age of nine; their daughter Agatha has recently been released from a sanatorium where she was admitted for the treatment of criminal pyromania. After her release from the sanatorium, she befriends a limo driver and aspiring actor, Jerome Fontana. Havana Segrand, one of Stafford’s clients and an actress, has a unique new assistant. She wants to shoot a remake of the 1960s movie, starring her mother Clarice which made her famous. Clarice has been dead for sometime now and visions of her ghost come to haunt Havana at night.

All sorts of movies popped into my head watching this trailer: THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, STOKER, MULHOLLAND FALLS, and MAGNOLIA, just to name a few. From Cronenberg’s own work, CRASH came to mind as well, but that could have just been the characters banging in a car. Whatever the case, MAPS TO THE STARS looks interesting and worth a viewing, I just hope that this trailer is a portent of good things to come.

MAPS TO THE STARS premieres in France on May 21, 2014 and currently has no U.S. release date. But stay tuned.

THE STUDIO ASKED US TO REMOVE THIS TRAILER FROM OUR SITE, SO WE HAVE.