Deadline is reporting news that is going to cause the Internet to erupt as David Cronenberg has cast Robert Pattinson (Twilight) in the lead role of his upcoming film Cosmopolis. Cronenberg adapted the script from the Don DeLillo novel and will direct the film as his assumed follow-up to A Dangerous Method.
Pattinson will star as Eric Packer, a financial wunderkind who risks his entire fortune to bet against the yen on a tumultuous day. His deed puts him in the crosshairs for assassination in a drama that is a study of capitalism in a slightly futuristic metropolis. Deadline’s Mike Fleming writes that most of the scenes in the book take place in the limousine that transports Packer from place to place.
The role of Packer was once believed to be in the hands of Colin Farrell with Marion Cotillard (Inception) set to play his wife. However, Fleming makes no mention of Farrell but does add that Marion Cotillard and Paul Giamatti are also reportedly doing the film. There’s no word on what role Giamatti would be playing.
Pattinson will next be seen in Water for Elephants alongside Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz on April 22 and is currently filming the final film in the Twilight franchise, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 set to hit theaters later this year on November 18.
As for Cronenberg, while The Matarese Circle and a rumored sequel to Eastern Promises have been mentioned over the past few years it looks like this will be his follow-up to A Dangerous Method, which stars Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley and Vincent Cassel and is likely to hit the festival circuit later this year.
