NEWS OF THE WEEK: Robert Pattinson reveals how fatherhood has changed him
Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence play new parents in the psychological thriller Die, My Love, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend to rave reviews. The pair got candid during a press call about how having children themselves has affected the way they work. Pattinson, who welcomed a daughter with his partner, Suki Waterhouse, in March last year, shared, "I think, in the most unexpected ways, having a baby gives you the biggest trove of energy and inspiration afterward. It's a different kind of energy.". Lawrence, who shares her son Cy, three, and a newborn with her husband Cooke Maroney, concurred.
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UPI
2 hours ago
- UPI
Benicio Del Toro: Imagination runs amok in 'Phoenician Scheme'
1 of 5 | Benicio Del Toro attends the photo call for "The Phoenician Scheme" at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19. Photo by Rune Hellestad/UPI | License Photo NEW YORK, June 6 (UPI) -- Oscar-winning actor Benicio del Toro says writer-director Wes Anderson meticulously plans every scene in his movies, but still welcomes input from his cast. "The approach is the same approach that I do on any movie I do. Just, I think, Wes wants you to be in the moment. He wants you to tell the truth, whatever that means," Del Toro, 58, said in a recent virtual press conference to promote his second collaboration with Anderson, The Phoenician Scheme, in theaters nationwide on Friday. "You have all this dialogue," Del Toro said, "but you can still bring a piece of yourself into it. And there's room for the imagination, too, to run amok. And you've got to have fun. Even if you're drowning, you've got to have fun." Co-starring Scarlett Johannson, Michael Cera, Bryan Cranston, Bill Murray and Tom Hanks, the espionage comedy is set in 1950 and follows Zsa-zsa Korda (Del Toro), an industrialist and arms dealer who wants to bring his estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton) -- a Catholic nun -- into his dangerous, top-secret business. It's Wes Anderson's world, we're just scheming in it. Focus Features (@FocusFeatures) June 6, 2025 "It's layered. It's full of contradictions, which makes it really yummy for an actor to try to bring to life," Del Toro said. "There is an element of my character wanting a second chance at mending a broken relationship. And I think that in the process in order to achieve that, he has to change and he does change. And I like to think that people can change. Not everyone changes, but I think some people can, and for the better." After previously working with Anderson on the 2021 hit The French Dispatch, Del Toro is used to the filmmaker's dense, quirky language. But, this time around, he has a larger role and a lot more to say. "There were a couple of moments where I went up to Wes and I said: 'Well, maybe we can take this dialogue out.' And, then, I went back to it and it wasn't as good," Del Toro recalled. "I had to go up to him and go like, 'I think you need to put it back because we're passing information that I think you need.' But that's why I couldn't join these people [in the cast] every day for dinner. I had to go up into my room and talk to myself." "You had a lot to say," Anderson agreed. "You took the time to absorb everything." Del Toro said another contribution he made to the project concerned Michael Cera's character Professor Bjorn, the tutor of Zsa-zsa's nine sons, who has a habit of sticking around when sensitive information is being shared. "I remember telling Wes, 'Well, I'm giving a lot of private information to my daughter and there is this stranger sitting right there. I feel uncomfortable as the character, giving all this information in front of a stranger. I'm telling her about my bank accounts and my everything, deals, with secrecy,'" Del Toro said. "Wes said to me, 'Well, we'll polygraph him.' And I went, 'Well, OK.' And, very quickly, he came up with this idea of a lie detector, which is a portable pocket polygraph," he added. "In 1950, it was probably the size of this building, but he made it into the pocket version." Despite the heightened reality, Anderson said this is essentially a father-daughter tale. "His whole business plan is really a mechanism for him to get back together with her," Anderson said of Zsa-zsa and Liesl. "He's acting like he's making her his successor and, really, it's more about what's going to happen between the two of them right now," Anderson added. "The business plan almost becomes like a ritual for him to be reunited with his daughter. ... In that sense, his plan goes great." Anderson first approached Del Toro about starring in this film after they wrapped up The French Dispatch. "I had a sort of the idea of a Euro tycoon, somebody who would've been in a [Michelangelo] Antonioni movie or something, that visual," Anderson said. "I did have this idea that he was probably hurting, that he was going to be in physical distress. Somehow, that was the image of this guy who you sort of can't kill." Over the course of time, however, this fictional man with a plan in a suit started mixing with Anderson's father-in-law Fouad Malouf, who, the filmmaker described as "an engineer and a businessman and he had all these different projects and different places." "He was a kind, warm person, but very intimidating," Anderson said. "He had all his business in these shoe-boxes. He walked [Anderson's wife] through his work at a certain point, because he thought if he is not able to see everything through, she needs to know what he's got. "And her reaction was what you say in the movie," Anderson turned to Threapleton, who immediately chimed in, "This is just crazy." "So, yeah, it was a mixture of those two things," Anderson quipped. "Fouad and whatever the first thing I said was."
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
Hallmark Leading Ladies Alison Sweeney And Ashley Williams Team Up To Explore Barcelona In Two-Part Movie
'Nobody was really sure exactly how it was going to work. You know, it's really rare to have two women as the true leads of a Hallmark movie. That doesn't happen a lot.' Alison Sweeney is talking about when she and Ashley Williams pitched their idea for a pair of Spain-set films to the network. Sweeney and Williams have each starred as the leading lady in several Hallmark movies, but they hadn't worked together in one. And, even more rare is the concept of having two leading ladies sharing the main storyline. This is just what happens in not one but two films featuring the actresses. In To Barcelona, With Love, Sweeney plays Erica, an American expat living in Barcelona who translates novels into Spanish. Anna (Williams) is the American author of the book Barcelona, Mi Amor that became a big hit after Erica's translation. When Anna comes to Barcelona for a book signing event, her arrival not only catches the attention of local bookstore owner Nico but also threatens to bring to light Erica's secret – that she took liberties with her translation to improve the story. As the two women navigate their relationship, they end up ultimately helping each find true happiness. In the follow up, To Barcelona, Forever, set five months later, Erica and Anna are happily navigating new chapters in their lives. Now friends, they find themselves traveling outside the city of Barcelona to a charming village where a misunderstanding leads to unexpected romance for one of them. Also a first for Hallmark, both films were shot entirely on location in Barcelona, Spain, and surrounding areas. Along with Sweeney and Williams, who also serve as producers on the project, Alejandro Tous and Miguel Brocca co-star in the films. Sweeney clarifies the concept of the movies a bit, saying, 'From the very beginning we always saw this as a story about the friendship between these two women and their bond. But of course, the romance that they each experience on their own is an important part too.' She says that for both she and Williams, 'So often when we do these movies, we're playing opposite a handsome, wonderful, charismatic man, which is fun, and its own journey,' but she expresses that both are happy about, 'getting to be sitting across from another leading lady.' 'It's just a different experience,' she explains. 'It feels very honest getting into the rawness and the realness of what happens between two women who are doing all kinds of things on their way to becoming friends. So it's a really different energy and a different dynamic than what people might call a 'standard' Hallmark movie.' In an interesting twist, Sweeney, commenting on working with Williams said that her favorite part of the collaboration was, 'not always agreeing about everything.' 'When you have someone just as invested as you in something, but they see something a different way, I'm so happy to have that conversation with an equally strong point of view that is not the same as mine, because I really thought mine was the only way, and now I'm hearing her point of view, and that's so much better. The movie is better because of everything we didn't agree about; those things that we really worked on to find the best solution.' Williams agrees, adding, 'Yeah, getting to go to Ali and say. 'I'm not sure about this,' and having her say, 'yeah, let's fix it,' was so great. It was just wonderfully validating to have a partner like that.' However, Sweeney says that things weren't 'perfect' all the time. 'The hardest part about working with Ashley is that I wanted to laugh all the time. She's just so funny, sometimes it was hard for me to be professional.' While they did let the laughter flow, Williams says that the two women were able to bring the drama as needed. 'There were a lot of moments in this when we really had to show conflict between our characters, and neither of us held back. And it was kind of fun because there are obstacles in this friendship, and it gets emotional and heated, and we really went for it in those scenes.' Speaking about the second film, Sweeney says that the intent was 'not to make a sequel or like the same movie again.' 'I think that's a really important as storytellers ourselves, but also just as fans of TV. I've watched lots of movies, and I watched the sequels, and I don't want to see the same movie again. I want to see a different movie. I want to see what happens next with these characters. So I think that was a really fun challenge; to find the story as producers and then as actors to keep these characters fresh for the audience, but in new circumstances.' Pointing out another reason to watch the films, the pair muse over the beauty of Spain on display, which Sweeney says, 'really is a character in the movies. So many beautiful places. Every scene is like a stunning postcard.' Also unique to these productions is that the Sweeney and Williams have produced a companion podcast, entitled Mi Amor, with Ali Sweeney + Ashley Williams. It started simply enough, says Sweeney, with, 'At the end of each day, we would drive back to the where we were staying and during that trip we would just talk a lot about what had happened that day. It was so fun. So then I thought, 'Okay, well, let's just do this with microphones and record it.'' 'To be clear, it's a homemade podcast,' says Williams with a laugh. 'It's just me and Ali with our little headphones on our computers, seeing if we can make a podcast. I really like that about it, that It's sort of made with scotch tape and paper clips.' Even given the low-tech production of it, Williams says that the podcast does give a great deal of insight into, 'the making of the movies, and what we were thinking as we were doing everything.' All of this seems to be a theme permeating not only their work together but highlighted in their films as well — that it's all about recognizing the moments that matter. 'It's the little stuff, nuances and details that happen in-between those, like, tentpole things that happen. That's what life is,' says Sweeney. 'It's all those little moments that happen unexpectedly, or maybe missed opportunities, and things like that. That's really what's fun about telling stories — when you do something and people can they see themselves in a particular moment. That's a win for us when we feel like we've created a situation that you would find yourself in and you understand it. And I think that's what we've done in these stories. 'To Barcelona, With Love' premieres Saturday, June 7th at 8pm. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel, and 'To Barcelona, Forever' debuts Saturday, June 14th at 8pm ET/PT on Hallmark Channel. The podcast, Mi Amor, with Ali Sweeney + Ashley Williams, can be found here.
Gizmodo
2 hours ago
- Gizmodo
The Long-Awaited First Look at Andy Serkis' ‘Animal Farm' Teases Seth Rogen's Barnyard Boss
While the George Orwell tale with the most resonance in 2025 is undoubtedly 1984, Animal Farm—first published in 1945 as a comment on the Russian Revolution of 1917—still has plenty to say in the present day. The very first clip from Andy Serkis' long-anticipated animated version of the story is here, and it gives us a first look at Seth Rogen's Napoleon informing the younger pig Lucky (voiced by Stranger Things' Gaten Matarazzo) that 'Things aren't always what they seem, and I'll help you decide what's right!' Given that Napoleon is a stand-in for Stalin in Orwell's story, that doesn't bode well for the future of the barnyard. (Kieran Culkin's Squealer gets a little comic relief moment at the very end of the scene.) Check out the clip, debuted by Variety ahead of Animal Farm's premiere next week at the Annecy Animated Film Festival. Despite Animal Farm's well-known origins as a political satire, Serkis noted back in 2012 when this project was first revealed that 'We're keeping it fable-istic and [aimed at] a family audience. We are not going to handle the politics in a heavy-handed fashion. It is going to be emotionally centered in a way that I don't think has been seen before. The point of view that we take will be slightly different to how it is normally portrayed and the characters. We are examining this in a new light.' That said, 13 years is a long time ago. Evolution happens. Revolution becomes more urgent. After all, Animal Farm was initially touted as being a motion-capture production; as you can see from the clip, the finished product is CG animated instead. Quoting from the film's press materials, Variety notes that Serkis explained 'I didn't want pantomime performances. I wanted internalized emotion, each close-up had to carry weight … It's a political fairytale that needed to feel both painterly and real.' And the themes indeed may be edgier than Serkis initially teased; the Animal Farm press notes have him describe his film as 'Wolf of Wall Street meets Bronx Tale, through the eyes of a pig.' The official synopsis: 'When a group of farm animals rebel and kick their neglectful farmer off the land, life is good and the dream of a free, equitable future is within sight. But power struggles among some of literature's most infamous characters ensue, and the realities of living in a world designed for mankind complicate and corrupt the satirical and allegorical, Animal Farm.' The rest of the Animal Farm cast includes Serkis himself, as well as Woody Harrelson, Glenn Close, Steve Buscemi, Laverne Cox, Jim Parsons, Kathleen Turner, and Iman Vellani. There's no theatrical date set yet, but later in 2025 feels like a safe bet.
