BritishGQ believe Rob’s Persol sunglasses seen in the new trailer for The Batman (see above) are worthy of being put in the sunglasses hall of fame. I tend to agree:

Robert Pattinson has a lot of things we want. He’s got the riches (Forbes recently reported he is worth more than $100 million). He’s got a sneaker collection filled with ultrarare designs (in 2020 he revealed exclusively to us that he seeks out and buys all the Adidas x Palace Skateboards collaborative trainers he can find). The elfin thesp is also one of the most handsome actors in the game, with unrivalled scissor-sharp features. 

Now he’s just unveiled something else that we want to add to that list. In the recently aired trailer for Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman, in which Pattinson takes the reins from Christian Bale, Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton before him as the title character, the actor is seen in an array of big ’fits spanning several action-packed scenes from the movie. 

In one such scene, which is actually a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment, Pattinson is seen sitting in a café sporting a pair of the chicest black shades we’ve laid our eyes on in any recent film. In fact, we’d go as far as saying they’re some of the best sunglasses we’ve seen since a Ray-Ban-wearing Will Smith graced screens in 1997’s Men In Black or, indeed, Keanu Reeves made the case for minimalist metal sunglasses in The Matrix.

Ideal for masking bleary eyes or else simply adding a slick edge to any autumn ’fit, we naturally felt the need to do some digging and have found out that the sunnies in question are actually one of Persol’s recent drops. 

The razor-sharp rectangular shades come with metallic detailing on the arms and are cut from sturdy black acetate in Italy.

If you want to check out Persol sunglasses head over to persol.com *website currently being upgraded* but Aussies can check them out at Sunglass Hut. Hmm one can never have too many sunnies.

Cavan Kilbey from Muse. (UK) wrote an article entitled “Atypical Performance: Reinventing Actors” and has this interesting comment about Robert Pattinson:

Aside from comedians, the other class of actor that is not usually expected to deliver a serious performance is the child star. There is a snooty assumption from most audiences that once you’ve been in something akin to Twilight, you’ll mostly star in complete dross for the rest of your career, but that isn’t always the case. Most of these performers go on to be in interesting projects that capitalise on and subvert their popular image; Daniel Radcliffe alone has been in such a weird range of films that his career deserves its own thesis. The one who has arguably succeeded most from this trend has been Robert Pattinson, who became a household name thanks to his turn as Twilight’s Edward Cullen, but is now lauded as a star of the arthouse scene. You can pick any number of films that feature him ‘playing against type’, including 2017’s Good Time, but the one that sticks out the most is Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse from 2019. Pattinson’s breakout performance as Cullen was often quiet and reserved, resulting in his typecasting as the awkward but well-meaning love interest in films like Water for Elephants, or as the snarky upper class lead in Cosmopolis. But The Lighthouse allows Pattinson to just let it all out and play a character full of guilt, anger, and frustration; he’s a volatile individual who beats up seagulls and tries to gain power over the dominant lighthouse keeper played by Willem Dafoe. Pattinson captures the Promethean struggle perfectly with the way he slowly bottles up rage across the opening acts of the film before exploding in the final third as he buries his friend alive and realises that the knowledge he’s been seeking the entire film has amounted to nothing.

With the exception of Garbo, none of the actors discussed have received Academy nominations for these roles and are seldom talked about in relation to their oeuvre, aside from Pattinson who currently enjoys a career revitalisation and has managed to stop himself from being typecast as Edward Cullen-type romantic leads.

Robert Pattinson is easily the most successful child star to come out of “Harry Potter”

According to The Insider, although Rob only appeared in one Harry Potter film “The Goblet of Fire” (well two technically if you take the pics of Cedric into account in the Order of the Phoenix), he is the most successful child star to come out of the franchise:

Could it have been anyone else? Pattinson spun his one-movie role into the leading man of one of the other biggest franchises of the 2010s: “Twilight.”

After a decade of distancing himself from big blockbusters by starring in films like “Good Time” and “The Lighthouse,” Pattinson is ready for his big, mainstream comeback. He starred in “Tenet,” “The King,” and is going to become Batman next year. There’s no one else that compares, honestly.

Thanks @Monsieur_HJ for heads up

IndieWire Explain Why There is No #Tenet Oscar Campaign

IndieWire have provided an explanation on why there is no Tenet campaign and as they explain we don’t have to look further than Christopher Nolan. Below is an excerpt, but you can read the full article by clicking on the link:

“Tenet,”…has two Oscar nominations for VFX and Production Design. It received one Golden Globe nomination (composer Ludwig Goransson); five Critics Choice craft nominations; sound editing, VFX and production design guild nominations; and one BAFTA nod, for Special Visual Effects. It has not won any to date.

…

Last summer, as all studios delayed their big-budget releases, Warners was ready to wait on “Tenet.” Nolan was not. Driven by a fervor to release his baby and/or single-handedly save movie theaters, he campaigned the studio to release the film and made his own statements that positioned his glossy puzzle box as the make-or-break movie of the pandemic.

…

This wasn’t Warners’ game plan. According to sources, the studio tried to calculate ideal theatrical release timing that would yield the most return on its investment. Distribution executives measured pandemic case rates against possible theater openings. This turned out to be a zero-sum game, but studio executives are also known to christen those gifted filmmakers who have global-brand bonafides as the smartest people in the room.

“Tenet” scored strong overseas numbers, but middling reviews (Metascore: 69). Limited access to theater seats over the next six months led to disappointing box office ($363.3 million worldwide so far). As theaters reopened around the country last weekend, the movie sold out on some New York and Los Angeles screens (playing to 25 percent capacity), just in time to play for vaccinated Academy voters.

It’s too late for that. Back in November, a bruised Nolan told Warners to put money on extending its release, not an Oscar campaign. Warners put its “Tenet” money into theaters where possible and published a Blu-ray as well as HD DVDs. Warners did not mail screeners to Academy members, did not plunk down $12,500 to upload the film on the Academy portal, placed no FYC ads, and mounted no digital screenings or Q&As.

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After “Tenet” received its two nominations March 15, Academy voters who clicked on the screening portal for links to the film saw that “Tenet” was “unavailable.” That meant any Oscar voter would have to find a DVD or a theater playing the film, which reaches HBO Max May 1 — six days after the Oscars ceremony April 25. It also means that Nolan’s Oscar campaign ban was depriving his own top-tier craftspeople of career-buttressing support. A 69 Metascore is more than respectable; Oscar-winner “Bohemian Rhapsody” scored 49. “Tenet” should have easily scored five or six nods.

Nolan finally relented; “Tenet” will be uploaded to the Academy portal March 29. “While we actively chose not to campaign the film,” said one Warners source, “at the filmmaker’s request, we will be supporting the nominations by putting the film on the AMPAS platform and passing members through the theaters.”

“Tenet Highlights Why Robert Pattinson Is The Right Choice for Batman”

Mark Lynch wrote this great article for on why Tenet proves that Rob as the right choice for Batman (not that WE needed any convincing). I like that Mark states “If Chris Pratt can go from the goofball in Parks and Recs to Star-Lord and Chris Evans from Not Another Teen Movie to Captain America then why can’t Robert Pattinson be allowed to make a similar jump?” Indeed Mark, indeed. Below is an excerpt, click on the link to read the full article:

The first time we see Robert Pattinson in Tenet, he looks and moves exactly like Bruce Wayne would in public. He’s dressed really nice, smiling, talking really smooth, and gave an appearance that put everyone watching him at ease. If you’ve ever seen Bruce Wayne in a comic with civilians or in Batman: The Animated Series, you know how often he plays the opposite of what he truly is.

…

In the first action scene, Neil displays all of his skills. He’s scaling a building, taking people out stealthily, and doing it all smoothly. He went from seemingly modest to a full-on threat in less than ten minutes. This is a switch we’ve seen Batman flip on multiple occasions. An underrated aspect of Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale did this well in the The Dark Knight Trilogy, effortlessly evolving from pompous, billionaire playboy to the heroic Caped Crusader in the blink of an eye. If Pattinson can do it in Tenet, he can definitely do it in The Batman.

…If there was any concern about him looking believable in a fight (not that there should have been), those can be put to rest instantly. We see Pattinson in action scenes and he looked believable. On that note, just how good does he look in the trailer for The Batman?

Batman is aggressive. He doesn’t kill, but he certainly puts a lot of people in hospitals with injuries that will take months to years to recover from – something that Pattinson convincingly portrayed in that trailer.

Brandon Katz from The Observer wrote this interesting piece on what Matt Reeves and Rob may need to overcome to bring a fresh take on The Batman:

When Robert Pattinson broods into frame in Matt Reeves’ The Batman next year, he’ll be the third actor to play Bruce Wayne in live action since 2005. If we count The Lego Batman Movie and Zack Snyder’s upcoming Justice League cut, The Batman will be the seventh major movie to feature the Caped Crusader in a lead role in that same span (eight if we’re also counting Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton’s returns in The Flash). When audiences bemoan Hollywood’s lack of originality and industry critics point to its desperate reliance on franchises and reboots, this is what they’re referring to: the endless recycling of a single character. While these detractors stand on solid ground, reusing the same character doesn’t inherently prevent an original cinematic experience.

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Reeves’ Gotham appears more stylistically grounded. Its wet and weighted fog descends on an old city besmirched by new evils. It stands in stark contrast to the the major metropolitan center of Nolan’s Dark Knight films and the nondescript futurism glimpsed in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Pattinson infuses his Batman with a manic ferocity that stands apart from Keaton’s stillness and Ben Affleck’s weathered lived-in rage. It may nominally be the same character, but The Batman seems to be exploring different aspects of their psyche. In the social media era of the enraged fanboy and incel army, it’s valuable to explore the havoc wrought by a well-resourced but unstable and violent loner who perceives himself above the masses. Especially when he sees himself as the hero.

Reeves has described his take as “very psychological” with an emotional “humanist bent” (the David Fincher vibes are hard to miss). Previous iterations seemed to focus more on the character’s source of trauma and duality, as well as the ideology of his villains, than on the psychological cost of all that pain. With all due respect to Burton’s stellar run, cycling through beautiful girlfriends between films isn’t exactly cutting edge commentary about sacrifice.

Finding the character at a different time in his life bridges the gap between the well-covered depictions too. While Batman Begins told an origin story and Justice League featured an older, more experienced character, The Batman takes place in the second year of Bruce Wayne’s vigilante career. The relatively new setting finds our hero not yet the valued symbol of strength he will become nor the mysterious disruption he must first have been.

The superhero genre continues to expand and amalgamate new veins of storytelling. … Reeves is promising more of a noir crime story than the farcical camp of Joel Schumacher or the hyper-realism of Nolan. A surrealist nightmare that differs from its predecessors in style, tone and intention.

The names may be the same—Batman, Catwoman, Riddler, Penguin—but the context has shifted. Reusing the same character does not automatically guarantee a recycled on-screen product. Reeves previously reinvented the well-worn Planet of the Apes franchise into something more meaningfully allegorical than its legion of B-movie extensions. So too can Bruce Wayne be reborn.

Click on link above to read full article.