Note:  Updates added to end of post

Al “FREAKIN” Pacino.  I’ve had a sketchy start this morning and I sent an email to the girls saying “Rob please give me something to smile about”. Wish granted.   According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“Focus Features is in final talks to to prebuy U.S. rights to Harmony Korine‘s The Trap, a revenge tale set against the backdrop of the Miami music scene starring Idris Elba as a gangster rap artist and Benicio Del Toro as his best friend who took the fall for a robbery the duo committed years earlier.

Elba is attached to replace Jamie Foxx, with Al Pacino, Robert Pattinson and James Franco also in final talks to join the cast (Del Toro was announced last year). …”

Franco again, this is okay if Rob’s in a movie with Al and Benecio.

Vertigo can you believe it.

More info about Rob’s role:

From The Film Stage:

“In The Trap, written by Korine, Rico (Elba) is at the top of his career and about to enjoy a triumphant night at the Grammy Awards when Slim (Del Toro) is released from prison after 14 years. Slim is determined to exact revenge after learning that Rico not only achieved fame and fortune but also married his girlfriend and raised Slim’s son as his own. Slim’s plot includes recruiting a crew of Uzi-weilding surfers led by Max (Pattinson), as well as enlisting the help of Rico’s cocaine-happy manager (Franco). Pacino will play Slim’s parole officer.”

From The Wrap:

“Set against the backdrop of the Miami music scene, “The Trap” finds Del Toro playing an ex-con out for revenge against a gangster rapper and former friend (Elba) who let him take the fall for a robbery they committed 14 years earlier.

Franco will play Elba’s drug-addled manager, while Pacino will play Del Toro’s parole officer. Pattinson will play a surfer who helps Del Toro exact revenge.”

From ScreenCrush:

“Idris Elba will take his part, playing a gangster rapper named Rico, who committed a robbery years earlier with his best friend, Slim (Del Toro). Rico is primed to win big on the night of the Grammys, but a recently freed Slim has other plans when he discovers that his old pal has become incredibly successful. Not only that, but Rico married Slim’s old girlfriend and has been raising their son as his own.

Pacino, who recently starred opposite Korine in David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn will play Slim’s parole officer, while Pattinson will play the leader of a gang of gun-toting surfers (what?!) and Franco plays Rico’s coked-out manager (sounds about right).”

From Collider:

“Elba will play a gangster rap artist named Rico who is at the top of his career when Slim (Del Toro), his best friend who took the fall for him for a robbery, is released from prison after 14 years. Now on the outside, Slim is determined to exact revenge on his adversary, who not only achieved fame and fortune but also married Slim’s ex-girlfriend and has raised Slim’s son as his own.

If the notion of Elba playing a gangster rap artist isn’t enticing enough, wait until you hear who these new additions are playing. Pattinson is set as an Uzi-wielding surfer enlisted by Slim to help get back at Rico, Franco will take on the role of Rico’s cocaine-happy manager, and Pacino will be playing Slim’s parole officer. Give me this movie now, please.” [Maria:  Ded]

EmpireOnline:

“The Trap, set deep in the Miami music scene, finds Benicio Del Toro playing Rico, a man who has been in prison for 14 years, simmering with resentment against the rapper and former friend Slim (Elba) who let him take the fall. Upon his release, he recruits a surfer (Pattinson) to help him get revenge.

Franco, who played Alien for Korine in Breakers, will here by Elba’s drug-addled manager while Pacino is on board as Del Toro’s parole officer. Korine should be gearing up to shoot soon. ”

The Playlist:

““The Trap” is set in Miami’s music scene and is a revenge and crime tale set within that milieu. Elba will play a gangster rapper and Del Toro will play his best friend. THR says in “The Trap” Elba’s characters “ is at the top of his career and about to enjoy a triumphant night at the Grammy Awards when Slim (Del Toro) is released from prison after 14 years. Slim is determined to exact revenge after learning that Rico not only achieved fame and fortune but also married his girlfriend and raised Slim’s son as his own.” Del Toro’s uzi-wielding crew also features Pattison and Franco who sound like typical Korine character freaks. Pacino will play Del Toro’s parole officer.

Korine has recently said the film will loosely incorporate elements of the electro-rap music genre popularized by Gucci Mane. “You could almost say there’s some type of Florida trilogy going on,” he said, in reference to “Spring Breakers” and… perhaps another film in the works?”

Adding some reactions to news  of potential cast:

Rope of Silicon:

“That is cast you get interested in no matter who the filmmaker is. I hope Korine gives them a little more to play with than the one note degenerates he has been writing for years. If that doesn’t happen, I think these actors are good enough to add something to the material. This is probably the first time I will be mildly interested in, if not really looking forward to, a Harmony Korine film. So, that is something.”

Shadow and Act (Indiewire)

“About “The Trap,” Korine said, a year ago: “I’m really just going to go for it. It’s some next level shit. It’s a revenge movie, sprawling, very intense… I don’t want to give away too much, but we’re probably going to start shooting in Miami after the New Year.”

Given the names involved, and Korine’s own reputation, this is something to watch for likely in 2016.”

Bustle (via Suze)

“While not everyone is a fan of Korine’s aesthetic — as indicated by Spring Breakers’ middling 65% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes — it’d be tough to discredit him as someone playing fervently against the tide of contemporary Hollywood. Every single one of Korine’s features and short films is steeped in the sort of twisted, mind-bending chaos that even the most ambitious of standard studio produced movies couldn’t hope to achieve. And, if nothing else, there is value in the persistent production of something so very different.

This is what makes The Trap such a particularly exciting venture for Korine. Yes, he has worked with big name stars before — notably Franco, Gomez, and Hudgens in Spring Breakers and Val Kilmer in the anthology film The Fourth Dimension — but The Trap marks Korine’s first A-lister lineup.  [My emphasis]

… Pattinson (a teen movie heartthrob and box office majesty, seeping gradually into more sophisticated genre cinema like Cosmopolis and The Rover), and Pacino (a veteran and industry kingpin whose any project would garner paramount attention), each to work quite against the “type” established by years of success in his own racket.

…

While Pattinson has tampered in the odd and the dark, such as in David Cronenberg’sCosmopolis and David Michôd’s The Rover, the young actor has quite a storm to brave before the Twilight image isn’t the thing most people know him for. Lauded for his work in both of the aforementioned movies, Pattinson’s turn for the severely twisted as a denizen of Korine’s Miami might in fact be the most promising of these recently announced roles. Those who saw Cosmopolis know he can play offset and menacing. Those who saw The Rover know he can play eerie and mentally askew. But the fun of it all: most people didn’t see those films, but did only see Pattinson’s Twilight pictures. If TwiHards flock to The Trap the way Disney Channel junkies flocked to Spring Breakers, expectations will be thrown for a worldview-tearing loop.”

All info available at our film page for “The Trap“