First Look At Maps To The Stars

David Cronenberg's latest mind-warper, Maps To The Stars, is taking shape. The great man is back in business crafting what promises to be a darkly comic look at Hollywood, the darkly comic place known affectionately to locals as La-La Land.

The project has reunited him with his **Cosmopolis **star Robert Pattinson, alongside John Cusack, Olivia Williams, Mia Wasikowska and Sarah Gadon, and gives him his first - yup, *first *- experience of shooting a movie in LA, as well as back in his native Toronto. This new on-set pic gives a nice behind-the-scenes look at the Canadian auteur at work with his cast. Written by Bruce Wagner, **Maps **is a challenging, dark comic tale about two child actors who are ruined by Hollywood’s sleazier side.

The Weiss family is a Hollywood dynasty comprising father Dr. Stafford (Cusack), an analyst and life coach, mother Christina (Williams) and son Benjie (Evan Bird), a child star whose career she's dedicating to supporting, and daughter Agatha (Wasikowska), fresh from a sanatorium where she was treated for criminal pyromania. They're The Addams Family by way of Inland Empire.

Complicating the picture further is Julianne Moore's character, Havana, an actress patient of Dr. Weiss's who is trying to get a film made about her late mother. She was a 60s movie star who comes back to haunt her dreams. **

Maps To The Stars** will be with us next year.