VIDEO: Well, Cosmopolis Looks Pretty Much Amazing [NSFW]

Move over, Prometheus: David Cronenberg and Robert Pattinson are here with a 30-second foreign teaser for Cosmopolis, their adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel about a young billionaire's dark, demented and all-around catastrophic 24-hour Manhattan odyssey. And it looks amazing.

In fairness, it's basically only 30 NSFW seconds of hyper-edited visuals, but what visuals: Times Square overrun with rats, Pattinson's Eric Packer shooting a hole through his hand, limousine trysts and pee breaks, and all the quintessentially Cronenbergian glimpses of the perverse in the quotidian. Niftier still is the dialogue introducing the teaser, clipped in DeLillo's own trademark staccato, hinting at a spiritual fidelity to the flawed but sui generis source material. It just looks and feels right. We'll see how the other 100 minutes or so can compare later this spring, when Cosmopolis presumably debuts (and lands an American distributor) at Cannes.

[via Movies.com]

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Comments

  • Peteykins says:

    Wow! This looks like it will more than make up for the tedium of A Dangerous Method. I may even forgive Cronenberg for M Butterfly if this is as good as it looks.

  • AS says:

    I'm not gonna lie, that does look pretty badass. Maybe this Pattinson character has got some real talent. Anyway, am I the only one who thought about Enter the Void while watching the trailer?

    • S.T. VanAirsdale says:

      You are not the only one! Everything just flies by with this intense, localized neon undercurrent. It's a marvel. I wish I had something higher-def to break down frame by frame.

      I love that they not only kept the part in the book where Packer pees on the limo floor, but that it's actually in the teaser, as if to say: This is what it is. Take it or leave it. Just brilliant.

      • AS says:

        Well, I'm definitely taking it! I think I've watched this thing like 8 times now. Something tells me this isn't The Artist of 2012. Unless The Master premiers at Cannes, which is highly unlikely, I say give this the Palme d'or!

        • S.T. VanAirsdale says:

          I'm down. Anything to encourage more DeLillo adaptations. I can't believe it's been 40 years and like 15 novels and this is only the first one. Bring on White Noise!

  • Delighted says:

    Looks like a wild ride for the sulky vampire! Nice role to take after all the schmoopy stuff. Looking forward to seeing Pattinson in a different light.

    I can't help but wonder if Colin Farrell regrets giving up this role. I can't remember if it was due to other filming commitments, but I was glad when he initially got the lead role in Cosmopolis. After watching this trailer, it looks like something Colin would have knocked out of the park.

  • CocaineHeart says:

    well, that does look just as bat-shit as the book.... WORD. excited to see this!

  • Max Renn says:

    Definitely better than about 99% of movie teasers in recent times. It looks wild (not read the book). Was that a dinosaur?

    I also liked Pattinson in Water for Elephants; it showed he has some range and charisma beyond being a teenage vampire idol.