In June, word arrived that Beau Travail** director Claire Denis was planning an ambitious film to mark her English-language debut: an untitled science fiction project. She’s now locked in a star, with Robert Pattinson confirmed for a lead role{
The script comes from White Teeth author Zadie Smith and her husband Nick Laird, though the specifics of the idea (conceived by Denis and regular writing partner Jean-Pol Fargeau) are being held back for now. We do know, however, that it will take place beyond the solar system in a future time that nevertheless feels like the present. Pattinson is attached to play the lead, an astronaut.
There is an eclectic group collaborating on the design and development of the new film including artist Olafur Eliasson, astrophysicist Aurélien Barrau, a specialist in black holes and cosmology, and musician Stuart Staples, who wrote tracks for **White Material **and another Denis project, The Intruder.
Denis should be rolling the cameras later this year or early 2016 in Cologne. Pattinson will next be seen in Life, the story of the friendship between photojournalist Dennis Stock and actor James Dean, due out here on September 25. He’s also worked on Werner Herzog’s Queen Of The Desert, Brady Corbet’s The Childhood Of A Leader and is now shooting The Lost City Of Z with director James Gray.