Robert Pattinson explains he may still work with Harmony Korine

Back on 11 February 2019 we posted that The Trap finally disappeared from “In Development” on Rob’s IMDbPro page.  Rob mentioned #TheTrap in his recent interview with Little White Lies explaining that the film fell apart but that he still loves Harmony Korine and next time he needs a hitman well …

Fast forward to this week where Harmony recently spoke to IndieWire about his latest film #TheBeachBum and mentioned this explanation as to why #TheTrap didn’t go ahead:

After “Spring Breakers” rejuvenated Korine’s auteur status, grossing more than three times its $5 million budget and winning him new fans, he pounced on the opportunity to bring Florida’s underbelly to a larger audience. That was going to be “The Trap,” an action-packed epic about a pair of robbers who part ways when one is arrested and the other becomes a famous hip-hop artist by stealing his incarcerated pal’s style. When the former friend breaks loose, he goes on a revenge-fueled rampage. Korine imagined it as his version of “Oldboy,” and with Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures behind it, he rounded up a cast of A-listers headed by Jamie Foxx and Benicio del Toro. Complications with Foxx arose early on; after Idris Elba replaced him, Del Toro landed a role in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” that threw off the shooting schedule. Four weeks before production, the financiers pulled out.

I guess it will depend if Rob wants to still play Max if and when this film is ever resurrected, but for now we can really put it to bed.

Robert Pattinson (or anyone) no longer attached to The Trap or Idol’s Eye

It should come as no surprise (and I know a relief to some), but Harmony Korine’s “The Trap” and Olivier Assayas “Idol’s Eye” have finally been removed from Rob’s IMDbPro page. I know that Rob has previously said that he’s in touch with Assayas on that project, but perhaps he’s now decided to not be involved because maybe we’re about to get news of a new project … hmmm

Eric Kohn from IndieWire sat down with Harmony Korine to talk about The Beach Bum and the subject of The Trap came up and this is what Harmony had to say:

“The Trap” Could Still Happen

Following the surprise commercial success of “Spring Breakers,” Korine initially had a different project in mind: “The Trap,” a very different sort of Florida-based story that at one point had Jamie Foxx and Benicio del Toro attached to star. But a series of complications arose during the pre-production stage. “This fucking thing fell apart,” Korine said. “I was like a month away from making it in Miami.” He described the project as “a gangster film … about a rapper who lives in Miami and goes to prison. It’s super violent.” After securing financing for the picture, “one of the actors had some issues, and a scheduling conflict,” Korine said. “Rather than get depressed or freak out, I needed to make something right away, so I wrote something that was the opposite of that. I felt like making a comedy, I felt like laughing, I wanted to do something that was more of a stoner vibe. And that was when I wrote ‘The Beach Bum.’”

He still thinks “The Trap” has potential. “I’m going to go back and make it,” he said. But when pressed to describe his next project, Korine diverted to an idea that lit up the room, even as his playful demeanor left his real intentions unclear. “I want to remake that movie ‘Cocoon,’” he said. Then he changed his mind and suggested that a “Children of Corn” remake was on his docket instead. From the audience, someone shouted, “‘Children of the Cocoon’!” Korine smiled. “That’s a great title,” he said.

To be honest I’m not even sure if Rob would still be attached (it’s still listed on his IMDbPro page, but there’s a part of me that’s been waiting to see uzi-wielding surfer Max for quite some time.  Development is currently “unknown” as at 11 July 2017.  Franco hasn’t been linked to the project since 2016.  Gucci Mane was added in 2016.  Details on our The Trap film page HERE

Robert Pattinson’s Upcoming Projects

I tweeted today that The King has finally been removed from Rob’s IMDbPro page.  It’s not a surprise to me because I believe Justin Kroll when he said that Rob wasn’t involved given he had the exclusive on Joel Edgerton.  IMDb | IMDbPro isn’t 100% accurate at the best of times, but I thought I’d take this opportunity to reflect on the projects in development currently listed on Rob’s page:

A photo of the completed #lighthouse set build on the Leif Ericson trail at Cape Forchu. The 60-foot lighthouse was designed to replicate those built in the early 20th century for the feature film, starring Willem Dafoe & Robert Pattinson. #nsfilmjobs #novascotia pic.twitter.com/pK8Qaf4lav

— Screen Nova Scotia (@Screen_NS) April 5, 2018

The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers)

Robert Pattinson said he was excited about his next project and “excited to be in a horror movie by Robert Eggers.”

Rob is currently in Nova Scotia with William Dafoe.  The film is currently in pre-production and filming is rumoured to commence on Monday 9 April 2018 and scheduled to finish around 11 May 2018.  We also know they have finalised the building of the lighthouse (see pic above) and the roads are now closed off from the general public.  It’s currently slated to be released in 2019.

The Souvenir: Part 2 (Joanna Hogg)

Not much is known about The Souvenir: Part 2 other than filming is supposed to start in the summer of this year and that Rob will have a leading role.  Part 1 is currently post production as at 22 October 2017, but we should know next Thursday (12 April 2018) if it is in fact going to Cannes as has been rumoured.

Well we always knew this movie may not eventuate and if it does it’s possible Robert may not be involved. Oh well I’m sure if we don’t see uzi wielding Max we will meet someone else. From Dazed Digital:

“Because The Trap was almost made last year. We prepped The Trap for a year and were a couple of weeks out from shooting it, and then one of the actors dropped out, and the whole schedule collapsed. Rather than wait another year until everybody was free again, I wrote The Beach Bum.

So, for The Trap, do you need to wait until Robert Pattinson and everyone else is available again?

Harmony Korine: He was free. It wasn’t him who dropped out. But I don’t know. After I’m done with The Beach Bum, I’ll see where everybody is. I’ll probably end up recasting the whole film.”

Thanks Sue.

I still have high hopes that this film will come to fruition.  Back in September 2016, James Franco interviewed Harmony Korine for Office.  As of December 2016, it looks like Franco is no longer involved, but then who really knows what is happening with The Trap.  Here’s an extract below:

JF — So let me jump into the writing scripts real quick—famously you wrote Kids in about three weeks, and you wrote Spring Breakers pretty fast too. … But now, the scripts that you’re writing since Spring Breakers are taking a long time. At one point you said something like “The scripts I write, I write really fast because they’re a blueprint.” But now it seems like they’ve become something else.

HK — Yeah, you’re totally right. What it is is, both of these scripts grew. So, I wrote The Trap, which is a movie that we were going to make last year, and that took a couple months, it took a while but we got it all together, it was a big film—or, it is a big film—lots of actors, a pretty full-on, muscular genre film, kind of violent. Then, I think like a month out of shooting, I had an issue with one of the actors—or there was an issue with one of the actors—and I had to replace that actor, but then the person I replaced him with, I had to wait on his schedule, and in that time another actor…it was like a domino effect. So they wanted to push the film back for another year, which I’m fine with. It’s not that I completely lose interest, but in that period I was just antsy. So all last year I was like, I’m not just going to wait on that film, I’m going to write something else and see what happens. Then I wrote this movie, it’s about done now, so this one seems—it’s like anything else, whatever’s new you’re the most excited about. So I’m still going to make The Trap, I just might make it after this other film. The main thing, you know, it probably has taken me longer to write because the stories are more ambitious, and the budgets are bigger, and the scope is maybe bigger. So I guess in some ways I feel like I have to put more into these scripts, because it’s kind of like I’m asking for more. If it were up to me I’d just write a very bare bones, skeletal thing and then riff around it. But it’s more difficult to put these bigger films together, so when I start writing it really takes hold. It becomes more like a novel, and that’s like what these became, they’re slightly more epic, more involved, and they also become a lot more about the place. I found myself maybe being overly descriptive with certain things, they’re almost like mini books now. So that’s what happened. But honestly, a lot of it comes down to the scope of them, and the size of them. Because I like the idea of pushing the vision into something bigger. I never really feel satisfied, I always feel like what I’ve done is only like, an infinitesimal amount of what I could possibly do. If I could really do what I wanted, I could do such serious damage. It would be amazing.

…

JF — Now, as far as working with actors, if you look at all your films, you’ve worked with a lot of non-actors, you’ve worked with a lot of first time actors, and so in The Trap, it was really one of the first times you were going to—and maybe you were even forced, like you had to for budgetary reasons—work with A-list actors. Is there a reason?

HK — Yeah, well for one I am really greedy now, and I want as many people to see the films as possible. I don’t want them to be limited, and so with that movie, it felt like it was time to go for it, and work with all these big names. But I also spent months casting real people, that were amazing, like real characters, you know? So it was going to be a kind of mix, and I was going to really make the other people disappear into this world, in a way. So it’s still a mix. But it’s hard enough even making movies, getting movies financed with names. So as much as I love working with non-actors, the economics of it is prohibitive. And it’s fun for me when people who wouldn’t normally see this type of film see the movie, in some ways that reaction is more interesting than just kind of dumping it and having the same people watch it. It’s more exciting for me. I spent so many years making films when I was a kid, and I love those movies, I love the way that they seem to have some kind of like cultural effect. But yeah, you want to spread your wings and see how far you can fly.

Click on the link for the full interview.

Thanks @ropcr for heads up.