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.
