Taylor Lautner's first attempt to branch out from being a shirtless-werewolf didn't quite go to plan: his reinvention as an action hero in Abduction met with, at best, indifference. So he's trying a different tack for his next excursion outside his Twilight niche, teaming up with indie guru Gus Van Sant for an as-yet untitled drama{
Robert Pattinson has been making a reasonable job so far of escaping Edward Cullen's sparkly glamour (despite the Twilight series not having finished yet) turning out for Francis Lawrence in Water For Elephants and, intriguingly, David Cronenberg in Cosmopolis. It sems that Lautner has taken notice, with THR reporting that "He's determined to work with top directors and writers from now on, as he strives to define himself as an actor."
The project Lautner is hatching with Van Sant is a low-budget feature based on an article in the New Yorker, which Lautner has optioned himself, as the film's producer. Frustratingly, exactly what the piece was that caught Lautner's eye has yet to emerge (we'll update when we know). There's no writer attached yet either, but further announcements are expected later in the week.
Van Sant had the opportunity to work with Lautner once before, when he applied to direct Breaking Dawn. As we know, he didn't get the job. "For those of you who might audition for film jobs," Van Sant advises, "they're used to like a forty-minute dissertation with perhaps visual aids and a pep talk about how fantastic this project is going to be. I just didn't know how to do that."
For better or worse, he made Restless instead... The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, directed by Bill Condon (who obviously knows his way around a Powerpoint presentation) is out on November 18.