CONFIRMED: New Project For Robert Pattinson ~ Working With Director Claire Denis ~ "Robert Is Committed To The Project & We Are Committed To Him"

CONFIRMED: New Project For Robert Pattinson ~ Working With Director Claire Denis ~  "Robert Is Committed To The Project & We Are Committed To Him"

UPDATE: The new role for Rob has been confirmed. Check out the details and what the producers have to say about Rob below. You're going to LOVE it!

The French website L'Express is reporting that Rob will be working with Claire Denis on a science fiction film at the end of the year.



UPDATE: Confirmation!

From Screendaily:

 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 including White Material and 35 Rhums.

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

MORE Media Reaction After The Cut


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.

Original Reports from French Press

From L'Express: (translations thanks to Pattinson AW)

Robert Pattinson to film with the French director Claire Denis

For her first science fiction film, French director Claire Denis has choosen the Twilight star, Robert Pattinson.

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

She is working on the screenplay with the novelist Zadie Smith (White Teeth), the astrophysicist Aurélien Barrau and the artist Olafur Eliasson. The movie will be shot in english in Cologne, in Germany, at the end of the year.

From Vodkaster:

Robert Pattinson in a french science fiction movie.

The director Claire Denis (Trouble Every Day, Les Salauds) is working on a script for a science fiction movie, with the novelist Zadie Smith, the astrophysicist Aurélien Barrau and the artist Olafur Eliasson. The plot is not ready yet, but the project, got already his lead actor, in the person of Robert Pattinson. The Twilight star is going to work with director Claire Denis, at the end of the year, in english, but in Cologne in Germany. Let's hope Vincent Gallo join the party, he alreay worked three times with Claire Denis

Also back in June The Playlist spoke a bit about Claire and the project. Read what they had to say about it HERE
Thanks Apsara and Mel for The Playlist link ;)