Robert Pattinson's edgy David Cronenberg-directed "Cosmopolis" premieres this Friday in limited release, and as it turns out, his next spate of soon-to-be-shot films are just as unexpected in nature as this latest film. Sure, he has one more "Twilight" film set for release in November, but Pattinson's post-"Breaking Dawn — Part 2" life is shaping up to be wacky.
"It came out of nowhere," he told about landing Werner Herzog's "Queen of the Desert." "I met him ages ago, and then it suddenly came out. It's different; it's a really different Lawrence. It's a cool... I didn't really know that much."
And while he didn't know all that much about the subject matter, he seemed to have faked it well enough to nab the coveted role of Lawrence of Arabia in the biopic. "It's about Gertrude Bell, and Naomi Watts is playing her. I didn't really know anything about her before and so I met Herzog and I was just trying to pull my way through it. I had no idea who she was. I hadn't read the script. I was just like 'Obviously, she's great.'
"I hadn't even seen 'Lawrence of Arabia' when I met him," he added about his lack of knowledge about any bit of information around the project before singing on. "But literally, it was like one of those meetings... literally meeting him is exactly what you want meeting him to be. Suddenly, he has these stories about sucking snake venom."
The big-screen blood sucker is also planning on heading to Iraq at some point to begin work on the "Mission: Blacklist," where he will hunt for Saddam Hussein.
"The director's there now," he told us about the scouting being done by Jean-St éphane Sauvaire. "And I want to do it there. But, yeah, obviously it's quite difficult to shoot there, but I think it's a fascinating country. And the director's been sending me pictures of just the original, the actual palaces where the U.S. army was based and they're beautiful. They're stunning. They look like Kubrick sets and they're all just empty, just sitting there."
But before he can begin work on either of those films, he will join Guy Pearce and "Animal Kingdom" director David Michôd for the futuristic western, "The Rover." "Right now, 'The Rover' is next," he said. "I think 'Mission: Blacklist' is probably going to be after that. But, yeah, 'The Rover' is next year, so if anyone has a job, just let me know."
For now, he may not have any film sets to go to, but Pattinson will be busy later this year when he jets off to promote his final "Twilight" flick, which opens on November 16.
Which project are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments!