Robert Pattinson Becomes “Lawrence of Arabia” in Werner Herzog’s ‘Queen of the Desert’
The world is sending me a message: Robert Pattinson is more than a sparkling vampire. As much as I’m going to get flak for that statement, here’s another: The jury is still out (on Pattinson of course). While he’s on a media blitz after his public breakup with Kristen Stewart, the actor has appeared in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis (which has garnered him favorable reviews) and will now star as “Lawrence of Arabia” in Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert.
Not one for safe choices, Herzog has cast Robert Pattinson as T.E. Lawrence, “a British Army officer whose writing earned him international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, on whom David Lean’s classic 1962 epic is based. Lawrence was a good friend to Bell over the years, as the duo helped establish the Hashemite dynasties in Jordan and Iraq.”
The film is said to follow the life of Gertrude Bel (Naomi Watts), “as a writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer and political attache for the British Empire. One of the first women to graduate from Oxford at the turn of the 20th century, she traveled through the Middle East, defining the borders of Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.”
Guess Twilight has allowed (or forced) him to take on some more challenging roles to shed off the vampire skin. We’ve seen actors, time and time again, get typecasted or pigeon-holed as one type of actor and they end up with a rather quiet career. I’m glad Pattinson is taking on risky roles, prove me wrong.
Production on Queen of the Desert begins late this Fall.
Source: Movie News
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About Mario Melidona
Mario has produced and written several screenplays and recently directed and edited a Black & White Short filmed on 16mm. His newfound love for postmodernism and the rise of existential cinema has been a great influence on his writings.
