Christina Ricci to Co-Star with Robert Patinson in Bel Ami

Multiple sources including Daily Mail and Production Weekly are reporting that Christina Ricci has been cast for Bel Ami, Robert Pattinson's new project.

Daily Mail:

Saucy escape from the Twilight zone

Robert Pattinson begins rehearsals next month with a line-up of leading ladies including Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Christina Ricci.

And that's just for starters. They will be preparing for a screen version of Guy de Maupassant's 19th-century novel Bel Ami about a thoroughly shameless Lothario who goes through life with an open fly.

Pattinson, who saunters through those Twilight movies like a tomcat who lapped up a lot of cream, will play Georges Duroy, a Frenchman of humble beginnings who works his way up from being a minor office clerk to become a powerful editor possessing great political influence.

Each rung up the ladder represents the influence of a powerful woman. More often than not, once he has finished with them he starts on their daughters. Thurman will play Madeleine, Duroy's first conquest.

Ricci takes on the role of Clotilde, whose husband is often away, and Scott Thomas plays Virginie, the wife of Duroy's editor-in-chief. He likes her daughter, too.

Directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod are meeting three other actresses who will play women with whom Duroy also associates.

The directing duo are from the theatre and are adept at working with classic texts and making them entertaining and accessible. More importantly, they also know how to get the best work out of their cast.

The picture is being produced by Uberto Pasolini, but pop visionary Simon Fuller is executive producer in what is his first foray into big-screen films.