2011’s movie hunks
If you look at this year’s Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor Drama, it could also be for the year’s best screen hunk. George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt join two of our choices -- Ryan Gosling and Michael Fassbender -- for the hottest Hollywood leading men.
Both make this list because they were in two of the year’s hottest films -- Gosling in "Drive" and Fassbender in "Shame," two movies that feature sexy anti-heroes that have put them on top of the year’s best performances. That they both were seen in multiple films (Gosling in "The Ides of March" and "Crazy, Perfect Love") Fassbender in "Jane Eyre," "A Dangerous Mind" and "X-Men: First Class") also had them on screen more than their peers.
Others on the list were in more than one film or had success on television. Some were hits, some not; but each is a looker that will likely be profiled on "E" in 2012 or (with apologies to Taylor Lautner) on the cover of People Magazine.
So here are some of the hunks that made a splash in the movies this past year and will likely do so next.
Alex Pettyfer
Okay, he was slated to be a break-out star earlier this year with "I Am Number Four" and "Beastly," but both tanked at the box office and Pettyfer remains just another pretty face in search of a hit. But is he too pretty to breakthrough into stardom? According to "How To Build A Tween Heartthrob" published earlier this month on Forbes.com,
Pettyfer may be too pretty for his own good. "While there’s no consensus on why actor Alex Pettyfer failed to fully ascend to heartthrob status, some say it may be because he is too good-looking."The guys who are heartthrobs are attractive, but they look like the boy next door," says one marketing analyst. "Rob Pattinson, Justin Bieber, even Timberlake aren’t the hottest guy in the room. These guys need to seem obtainable and acceptable to their parents."
Director Steven Soderbergh is taking advantage of Pettyfer’s good looks for his male stripper dramedy "Magic Mike," currently in production. The movie has Pettyfer starring with Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello (of "True Blood") and Matthew McConaughey in a story loosely based on Tatum’s experiences as a 19-year old stripper. Pettyfer plays a young dancer named the Kid who is taken under the arm by an older dancer played by Tatum.
About the film, due out in June, the director told Collider: "When Channing talked to me about this, I thought it was one of the best ideas I’ve ever heard for a movie. I said I wanted in immediately. It’s sexy, funny and shocking. We’re using ’Saturday Night Fever’ as our model, so hopefully we’re on the right track."
Shiloh Fernandez
He lost the role of Edward Cullen to Robert Pattison, but Catherine Hardwicke (who directed the first film in that franchise) didn’t forget Shiloh Fernandez’s audition in her Venice Beach garage and cast him as one of the two hunks in "Red Riding Hood," her tween update of the classic fairy tale. In the film, he starred with Max Irons as two village hunks in love with Amanda Seyfried.
Fernandez’s dark, bad-boy looks are why he’s getting more attention in Hollywood. According to his Wiki posting: "MTV Networks’ NextMovie.com named him one of the ’Breakout Stars to Watch for in 2011’. As he shot into the spotlight he became the cover model of Nylon Guys March 2011 issue, introducing him as "Hollywood’s New Rebel". He then became the cover man for the April/May 2011 issue of Da Man magazine."
Fernandez is currently filming "The East," a terrorist thriller with Alexander Skarsgård and Ellen Page. He also recently co-starred in "Syrup," a caper comedy with Kellan Lutz, Amber Heard and Britanny Snow, and is scheduled to be starring in "Adult World," a comedy opposite Emma Roberts, playing a graduate student who thinks she is going to be a great poet, but ends up working in an adult bookstore.
