We very recently caught up with BAFTA Orange Rising Star nominee, acclaimed treader of boards and star of Tom Tykwer's great new film Perfume, Ben Wishaw, and he had a few interesting things to offer about his next two projects.
Equally strange and, well, not so much shrouded in mystery, as just generating a bit of confusion, are Pawel Pawlikoski's latest offering The Restraint Of Beasts and Todd Haynes' next, I'm Not There (also known as 'that weird Bob Dylan movie').
"Pawel is a really interesting guy to work with," said the young Brit. "But I don't really know when [Beasts] it'll be out, because we don't have an ending yet!" Ending? Most of us don't know the beginning. "It's about a group of fence builders who come down from on a contract, and keep accidentally killing people. I'm playing the foreman of a unit of three, who's actually got less experience than the others."
Closer to release is the Dylan project, which by now people have found a way to pitch without imploding the minds of anyone listening. "It covers all the various facets of Bob Dylan, and those facets are played by seven different actors," he explains. "Mine deals with his appreciation of poetry, and especially his love of the work of French poet Arthur Rimbaud." Ah yes, but does he have to sing? "Well there are songs in the film, but I don't have to sing."
Right now though, following hot on the heels of the acclaim from his role in Perfume, the big excitement around Ben is his nomination for the Orange Rising Star award. So, how does it feel to be selected by the best, and put up against the best? "It's incredible. To be recognised by this industry is just amazing, and to look at the other nominees and what they've achieved, it really, truly is and honour. I've seen at least some of the work of all the other nominees – not studying the form or anything! But just in the course of going to see things, and they're all terrific performers."
But what's on the agenda if he bags the prize? "I really don't know – I'm honestly not expecting to win, and I'm certainly not banking on it, so I have absolutely no idea what would happen if I did."
Of course, as with any publicly voted prize, if you want someone to win, you have to vote for them, and if you'd like to vote for Ben you can do it by texting "EMPIRE A" to 81800 (which costs 25p plus a standard network charge). Or you can check out an overview of each of the nominees here.