Always so exciting to hear of any possible new projects for Rob. L’EXPRESS are reporting the following (translated by Google Translate)

For her first film of science fiction, the French filmmaker Claire Denis has set her sights on the Twilight star, Robert Pattinson.

[Exclusive] Star of Twilight and teen idol, Robert Pattinson is surprising offers choices of career. After David Cronenberg, Werner Herzog and James Gray, he just said yes to another auteur cinema personality popular in the United States, the French Claire Denis. For an ambitious project: the first science fiction film from the director of White Material.

She is working on the screenplay with novelist Zadie Smith (wolf smiles), astrophysicist Aurélien Barrau and visual artist Olafur Eliasson. The film will be shot in English in Cologne, Germany, at the end of the year.

Screen Daily posted an article about Claire Denis & the film back in June which you can read here. The film is listed on IMDbPro as ‘Untitled Claire Denis/Adventure Sci-Fi Project’ & is at ‘Script’ stage ‘In Development’ with no cast listed as yet.

Updated: Rob’s name now added to the project page on IMDbPro

We’ll of course keep you posted.  Look forward to hearing more.

Thanks to @mlcabsv & @VioletRoseIV for the heads up.

Updated:  More info thanks to Screen Daily.  How fantastic does this sound, Rob as an astronaut 🙂

Robert Pattinson is to play the lead role in Claire Denis’ upcoming English-language sci-fi film, written with British writer Zadie Smith.

Paris-based producers Alcatraz Film confirmed the casting to ScreenDaily and said: “We are very proud and very happy, as is Claire, about what will be a great collaboration. Robert is committed to the project and we are committed to him.”

Pattinson is set to play the astronaut lead role in the as-yet-untitled film, which Screen first reported on in June.

Plot details are being kept under wraps but it is known to take place beyond the solar system in a ‘future that seems like the present’.

Denis is writing the script with acclaimed novelist Smith (White Teeth) and Smith’s writer husband Nick Laird.

The project, which marks an intriguing change of direction for the White Material and Beau Travail writer-director, is based on an original idea by Denis and her regular writing partner Jean-Pol Fargeau and is due to go into production early next year.

Producers are Oliver Dungey (Miss Julie), Laurence Clerc and Olivier Thery Lapiney from Paris-based Alcatraz Films, and Claudia Steffen and Christoph Friedel of Pandora Filmproduktion in Cologne.

Alcatraz and Pandora produced Denis’ most recent feature Bastards, which debuted at Cannes in 2013.

Denis regulars Wild Bunch are handling international sales while Des Hamilton is casting the project, which is currently in advanced development and is due to shoot in studio in Cologne in late 2015/early 2016.

Collaborators on the film also include Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, known for his Tate Modern installation The Weather Project; astrophysicist Aurélien Barrau, known for his work on black holes and cosmology; and Stuart Staples of indie band Tindersticks, who previously provided music for Denis titles includingWhite Material and 35 Rhums.

The news was first reported on French site L’Express.

And from The Film Stage:

After the immensely promising news that Claire Denis will follow up Bastards, one of our favorite films of the last few years, with a sci-fi film set in space, we now know who will be leading the project. According to L’Express, Robert Pattinson has been set to star in the film, adding another impressive collaborator to his resume after David Cronenberg, Werner Herzog, Anton Corbijn, David Michôd, and James Gray.

Based off an idea by Denis and frequent collaborator Jean-Pol Fargeau, the script will come from Zadie Smith and Nick Laird. Although plot details aren’t being disclosed yet, Pattinson will take the role of an astronaut. The only brief note we’re given is that it will “take place beyond the solar system in a future that seems like the present.” Additional collaborators include artist Olafur Eliasson and astrophysicist Aurélien Barrau, as well as Tindersticks‘ Stuart Staples, who has had many previous collaborations with Denis.

“I am delighted that Claire has been tempted to cross the channel and make a film in English; she is one of the greats of contemporary cinema and she’s assembled a quite extraordinary team to make exactly the kind of ambitious film that audiences cherish – completely original, genuinely pushing the boundaries of art and science and, above all, extremely entertaining,” producer Oliver Dungey says.

Click the links for full articles 🙂

Vulture:

Since the final Twilight film opened in 2012, Robert Pattinson has found consistent work in artier fare, taking roles in David Cronenberg’s stoic adaptation of Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis (2012), The Rover (2014), Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars (2014), the upcoming Dennis Stock and James Dean biopic Life, and as T.E. Lawrence in Werner Herzog’s upcoming Queen of the Desert. Pattinson will continue on that path, taking the lead role in acclaimed French director Claire Denis’s first English-language film, penned by Denis, Zadie Smith, and Smith’s husband, Nick Laird.  Pattinson will play an astronaut, according to Screen Daily, in the sci-fi film that takes place in a “future that seems like the present.” Denis, an art-house auteur known for her slow, elliptical narratives and stygian tones, has played with genre films before, notably her brilliant pseudo-vampire film Trouble Every Day and last year’s relentlessly cryptic Bastards, so there’s no telling how Denis defines “science-fiction.” The film isn’t slated to go into production until the end of this year or beginning of next, so we have a lot of time to speculate.

The Guardian:

Robert Pattinson will take the lead role of an astronaut operating beyond the borders of our solar system in the new science-fiction film from Zadie Smith and Claire Denis, reports ScreenDaily.

The British star of the Twilight films and David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis was confirmed in the role by Paris-based production company Alcatraz Film. Smith, author of the award-winning, bestselling novel White Teeth, was recruited in June to write the screenplay with her husband, Nick Laird, and Denis.

Alcatraz Film told ScreenDaily: “We are very proud and very happy, as is Claire, about what will be a great collaboration. Robert is committed to the project and we are committed to him.” (RPAU emphasis)

Pattinson will be seen next in Anton Corbijn’s Life as the 1950s photographer Dennis Stock, who captured some of the most iconic images of a pre-fame James Dean during a cross-country road trip in 1955. He has also signed up for a return to big-budget fare in James Gray’s The Lost City of Z, about the 1920s explorer Percy Fawcett, who disappeared in the Amazon while looking for an ancient city.

The Playlist:

When it was first announced that arthouse fave Claire Denis was making a sci-fi movie, it already had us pretty excited. Now toss in acclaimed novelist Zadie Smith as a co-writer and frankly, just tell us where to show up when it’s done and we’ll be there. As if all that wasn’t enough, it looks like Denis is getting a big name to star in her first English language film.

Screen Daily reports that Robert Pattinson will lead the untitled project.  Denis, Smith, and Nick Laird are all writing the script, about which the details are being kept under wraps. All that is known is that Pattinson will play an astronaut in a story set “beyond the solar system in a ‘future that seems like the present.’ “ So yes, this sounds awesome.

Empire:

In June, word arrived that Beau Travail director Claire Denis was planning an ambitious film to mark her English-language debut: an untitled science fiction project. She’s now locked in a star, with Robert Pattinson confirmed for a lead role.

The script comes from White Teeth author Zadie Smith and her husband Nick Laird, though the specifics of the idea (conceived by Denis and regular writing partner Jean-Pol Fargeau) are being held back for now. We do know, however, that it will take place beyond the solar system in a future time that nevertheless feels like the present. Pattinson is attached to play the lead, an astronaut.

There is an eclectic group collaborating on the design and development of the new film including artist Olafur Eliasson, astrophysicist Aurélien Barrau, a specialist in black holes and cosmology, and musician Stuart Staples, who wrote tracks for White Material and another Denis project, The Intruder.

We Got This Covered:

Arthouse favorite Claire Denis looks set to send Robert Pattinson beyond the reaches of our solar system for her first English-language film, after Screen Daily today confirmed that the actor is attached to topline the nascent sci-fi picture.

Parisian production company Alcatraz Film broke the news of Robert Pattinson’s casting, revealing that the studio is “very proud and very happy, as is Claire, about what will be a great collaboration. Robert is committed to the project and we are committed to him.”