Cinema’s 12 Muses of Tomorrow

12 New, Exciting Muse-Director Relationships

'Vanity Fair' can't wait to see what comes of these partnerships

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff Posted Sep 14, 2013 2:51 PM CDT

(Newser) – Woody Allen and Diane Keaton (or Mia Farrow, take your pick). Alfred Hitchcock

and Tippi Hedren. Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman. There have been some great director-

muse relationships over the years, and Vanity Fair speculates on the next generation…

At age 20, Jennifer Lawrence was the second-youngest

woman ever to be nominated for a Best Actress Academy

Award (for 2010’s Winter’s Bone). But it wasn’t until the

ripe age of 22 that she actually won the golden statuette—for

her hypnotizing performance as widowed sex addict cum

competitive dancer Tiffany Maxwell in David O. Russell’s

Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Now the thrice Oscar-

nominated director, who has guided seven different actors in

Oscar-nominated performances (with three wins), once

again joins forces with Lawrence for American Hustle (December 2013), along with Silver Linings co-star Bradley

Cooper, and Christian Bale (who also won an Oscar for

Russell’s The Fighter). Needless to say, Russell keeps his

award-winning affiliations close to his chest. And we think

it’s only a matter of time before his newfound muse wins him

his own golden ticket.

David O. Russell guided Jennifer Lawrence to her Best

Actress Oscar win for "Silver Linings Playbook," and next

up they're working on "American Hustle" together.

(Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision/AP)

Lena Dunham& Jemima Kirke

Lena Dunham has said that she's been "obsessed"

with Jemima Kirke since the two were 8 years old.

Dunham tends to write characters with friends in

mind, Kirke included. She directed Kirke in "Tiny

Furniture" and created a character for her in

"Girls."

(AP Photo/Starpix, Dave Allocca)

Cinema’s 12 Muses of Tomorrow

Anna Kendrick & Joe Swanberg

Anna Kendrick is starring in two of director Joe

Swanberg's new and upcoming films: "Drinking

Buddies" and "Happy Christmas." Swanberg has been in

need of a new source of mumblecore inspiration ever

since Greta Gerwig teamed up with a different director,

and Kendrick could be it. (Photo by Andy

Kropa/Invision/AP)

Joey King & Zach Braff

For his directorial debut, actor Zach Braff—who rose to fame as the

lead in ABC’s off-kilter doctor series Scrubs—created not only an ode

to his home state (Garden State, 2004), but also exalted the talent of

up-and-coming Natalie Portman, having written the title character

with the actress in mind. For his next film, Wish I Was Here (2014),

Braff directs 14-year-old Joey King (Crazy, Stupid, Love, 2011)—

another petite, expressive brunette on the verge of indie stardom—

whom he met on the set of Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). We can

only expect a character as lovably quirky for the newly minted teen

star. And possibly Braff, an admitted Woody Allen fan, will have

found his Mia Farrow.

By Alison Buck/Getty Images.

Mia Wasikowska & David Cronenberg

Mia Wasikowska, 23, gained worldwide prominence in 2010 after winning

the much-coveted titular role in Tim Burton’s $1 billion-grossing adaptation

of Alice in Wonderland (2010). David Cronenberg, oft cited as the King of

Venereal Horror, gained renown for exploring the boundaries of bodily

transformations and disease. With Wasikowska’s ghostly looks and quiet,

contemplative persona, she’s an oddly perfect match for Cronenberg’s

macabre sensibility. She stars in his latest film, Maps to the Stars (2014),

alongside Robert Pattinson. The film’s subject, Hollywood’s perverse culture

of fame, seems apropos: Pattinson, who is currently a Cronenberg favorite—

having starred in his prior feature Cosmopolis (2012)—was thrust into the

universe of cinema superstardom following his title role in the blockbuster

Twilight series; we can only imagine that Cronenberg’s masterful eye will

transform Wasikowska to equal measure.

By Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images.

Cinema’s 12 Muses of Tomorrow

Hailee Steinfeld & Carlo Carlei It takes a particular type of woman to

launch one of the most celebrated love stories in the history of mankind. It also

takes a certain caliber of actress, along with a notably skillful director, to

bring Shakespeare’s Juliet to life. From Olivia Hussey’s iconic performance in

Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 Oscar-nominated masterpiece, to Baz Luhrman’s

career-making 1996 interpretation (which also put actress Claire Danes on the

map), Romeo and Juliet has been a cinematic game-changer for both director

and muse. For the most recent iteration (in theaters October 2013), 16-year-

old Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld (nominated for 2010’s True Grit) plays the

seminal star-crossed lover, with Italian newcomer Carlo Carlei as her

director. We can only hope that the inimitable pair, with a script written by

Downton Abbey’s Julian Fellowes, continues the streak of Hollywood magic.

by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images.

Chloe Grace Moretz & Kimberly Peirce

In 1976, Stephen King’s story of an abused, vengeful high-schooler

with telekinetic powers shocked and terrified audiences, catapulting

actress Sissy Spacek and director Brian De Palma into cinematic

stardom. Now Chloe Grace Moretz, who began her career with

2005’s The Amityville Horror remake and also starred in 2010’s Let

The Right One In, reprises the title role of Carrie in this year’s

remake of the classic horror film. The 16-year-old is paired with

director Kimberly Peirce, who also knows a thing or two about

depicting women on the fringe: she directed Hilary Swank in her

Oscar-winning performance as a transgendered teen for Boys Don’t

Cry (1999). This will be Peirce’s second film since Boys and third

film total, and we are prepared for an electrifyingly bloodcurdling

alliance; fortunately for us, King also wrote a sequel.

By Ian Gavan/Getty Images.

Cinema’s 12 Muses of Tomorrow

Saoirse Ronan & Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson is a director notorious for stylistic precision,

and for fostering a recurring stable of idiosyncratic muses:

Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, and Jason

Schwartzman, to name a few. For The Grand Budapest

Hotel (2014), Saoirse Ronan joins the typical cast of

characters for the lead role, bringing with her the ethereal,

slightly regal disposition that made her so striking in the

roles of a jealous young playwright in 2007’s Atonement, a

purgatorial murder victim in 2009’s The Lovely Bones, and

a juvenile assassin in 2011’s Hanna. For a filmmaker who

prefers his females rendered with a quiet, steadfast strength,

the 19-year-old Ronan perfectly fits the bill. Coupled with a

deliberately off-kilter, vintage-inspired costume, Anderson’s

newest character is sure to join the ranks of Gwyneth

Paltrow’s four-fingered Margot Tennenbaum (The Royal

Tennenbaums, 2001) and Kara Hayward’s knee-high

touting Suzy Bishop (Moonrise Kingdom, 2012).

By Stuart Wilson/Getty Images.

Bella Heathcote & Derick Martini

Australian actress Bella Heathcote made her stateside debut playing

Johnny Depp’s stunning paramour in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows

(2012)—a character so hypnotizing she leads Depp’s lovestruck

character off a cliff. Twice. For her forthcoming thriller, The Curse of

Downers Grove (2014), Heathcote, 25, plays a teen plagued by a high-

school curse. She’s in the hands of burgeoning master Derick Martini,

a director whose talents are already championed by Martin Scorsese.

With a script co-written by 80s Zeitgeist author Bret Easton Ellis, the

film may be the beginning—to quote a cornerstone of American

cinema—of a very beautiful friendship.

By Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images.

Cinema’s 12 Muses of Tomorrow

Lily Collins & Harald Zwart

Director Harald Zwart has recently made a name for himself with

remakes of two beloved cult classics: the sequel to Steve

Martin’s Pink Panther (2009), initially realized in the late

1970s by the inimitable Peter Sellers, and his rendition of

1980s favorite The Karate Kid (2010). It’s no wonder then

that his forthcoming feature stars the progeny of another

cultural heavyweight: daughter of 1980s musical superstar

Phil Collins. But Lily Collins, whose career catapulted with

her appearance in 2009’s The Blind Side, carries a weight

all her own; with delicate, elfin features and a trademark set

of brows, the 24-year-old actress bears a striking

resemblance to Audrey Hepburn, with talent to match.

Zwart and Collins are due for a long run; the two have

signed on for a series of young-adult fantasy films, The

Mortal Instruments, based on the best-selling novels of the

same name. The first, City of Bones, is currently in theaters,

and a sequel is already slated for release next year.

By Ethan Miller/Getty Images.

Anna Kendrick & Joe Swanberg

Director Joe Swanberg is considered one of the paramount figures in

the mumblecore-film movement, with his films often featuring noted

mumblecore ingénue Greta Gerwig: LOL (2006), Hannah Takes the

Stairs (2007), and Nights and Weekends (2008). But once Gerwig

forged a partnership with director Noah Baumbach, following her role

in his 2010 hit Greenberg, Swanberg needed a new source of

inspiration to fill her shoes; enter Anna Kendrick, the petite actress

who matched George Clooney’s stalwart character in 2009’s Up in the

Air (for which she was nominated for an Academy Award). Kendrick—

whose sanguine persona offers a welcome reprise from the existential

malaise often figured so prominently in mumblecore—is already

starring in two of Swanberg’s upcoming movies: Drinking Buddies

(August 2013) and Happy Christmas (2014).

By Paul A. Hebert/Getty Images.

Cinema’s 12 Muses of Tomorrow

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff Posted Sep 14, 2013 2:51 PM CDT & By Tathiana Monacella

Juno Temple and Robert Stromberg

English actress Juno Temple, 24, has earned considerable

accolades for her supporting roles in films such as Notes on

a Scandal (2006), Atonement (2007), and The Other Boleyn

Girl (2008). Now the actress plays a prominent role in

Academy Award winner Robert Stromberg’s directorial

debut, Maleficent, alongside Angelina Jolie and Elle

Fanning. Stromberg, the renowned production designer

responsible for the epic, otherworldly environments in films

like Avatar (2009), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Oz the

Great and Powerful (2013), now steps into the limelight,

directing the revisionist take on the Sleeping Beauty fairy

tale. For Temple, this just might be her breakout moment too.

By Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images.