Update! A confirmation from ET Canada "We have confirmed that Robert Pattinson will now play the lead in David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis."
via Nikki Finke
Deadline Hollywood- EXCLUSIVE: Robert Pattinson has booked his first major lead for when he completes The Twilight Saga. Pattinson will star in Cosmopolis, the Don DeLillo novel adaptation that David Cronenberg wrote and will direct. Pattinson, who just starred with Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz in the Francis Lawrence-directed Fox 2000 film Water For Elephants, will play Eric Packer, a financial wunderkind who risks his entire fortune to bet against the yen on a tumultuous day. His deed puts him in the crosshairs for assassination. The story is set in the near future.
As Pattinson and his Twilight Saga castmates plan their careers after the series is completed--Bill Condon is directing the final film right now, Pattinson is following a path based on strong filmmakers. He took the role because he is a big fan of Cronenberg's work. He's repped by WME and 3 Arts.
No confirmation yet but Ms. Finke is a very reliable source in Hollywood.
Lots more updates after the CUT
Update from BusinessInsider After years of playing a vampire, it’s fitting that Robert Pattinson’s next role should be a trader. According to the Wrap, Robert Pattinson just stole the lead role in the movie, an adaptation of 74-year old postmodern author Don Delillo’s book, Cosmopolis, from Colin Farrell.
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If the movie is anything like the book the movie’s based on, it should be awesome. First of all, the lead is a 28-year old billionaire who entertains “highly sexed women” while his wife is merely an extra he sees outside the limo he’s riding around in all day (one thing we hope they change — please don’t let this be another Phonebooth).
His bet against the rise in the yen apparently “parallels his own fall,” as he loses his clients millions of dollars, and interestingly, he enjoys it; “relishing being unburdened by the loss of so much money.”
This brings us to another reason why we like the idea of this movie. The book is written as a modern re-interpretation of Ulysses, so it could be smart. Also, John Updike wrote a scathing review of the book in the New Yorker, and Walter Kirn (who wrotethe book, Up in the Air) had an equally critical take in his New York Times review.
Their criticism is primarily that:
“barely corporeal cerebral entities occupy the pages” (Kirn)
“the sounds they produce are so monotonous… that it’s a mystery why they’re even bothering” (Kim)
“DeLillo’s sympathies are so much with the poor that his rich man seems a madman” (Updike)
Good books almost never turn into good movies, so this bodes well. They better change that last bit though. Otherwise, this’ll just be another Wall Street 2. Spunk_ransom
Update from GossipCop has reportedly signed on to star in David Cronenberg’s upcoming adaptation of Cosmopolis.
It’s not a done deal quite yet. A source in Pattinson’s camp tells Gossip Cop they’re in “negotiations.” Barring a hitch in the talks, Cosmopolis will be Pattinson’s next major role.
The movie, based on a novel by Don DeLillo, follows a young financial whiz named Eric Packer as he journeys across a major city by limo during one tumultuous day. Marion Cotillard and Paul Giamatti are reportedly attached to the project.
Update from Reuters Production is eyeing a mid-May start in Toronto.
Update from E!OnLine MarcMalkin "While a report today claims Pattinson will star in Cosmopolis for edgy director David Cronenberg, I'm told the deal isn't done just yet. In other words, everyone wants it to happen, but they're still in negotiations.
If it happens, Pattinson will be taking a very big (and very smart) step away from his vampire alter-ego. Based on Don De Lillo's novel of the same name, Cosmpolis centers around Eric Packer, multi-billionaire finance man (that would be Rob's part) who finds himself targeted by assassins after he loses a ton of money by betting against the rise of the yen.
The book takes place over the span of just one day with Packer crisscrossing through New York City in a high-tech limo to get a haircut at his father's favorite barber shop.
"He has sex with two women, his art consultant and a bodyguard," reads a review in Publisher's Weekly. "He is hit in the face with a pie by a protester. He knows he is being stalked, and the novel stages a final convergence between the ex-tycoon and his stalker."
Oh, he also shoots someone as the limo driver has to navigate around a presidential motorcade, an attack by anarchists and a rapper's funeral. Packer has several meetings in the limo with folks like his doctor and some finance men."
Character description from the Borders.com...thanks Nel via Robsessed
Eric Packer, age 28, is a billionaire asset manager, and on this day he is a man with two missions: to pursue a destructive bet against the yen and to get a haircut across town. This nationally bestselling masterpiece is from "our greatest contemporary novelist" ("Details").It is an April day in the year 2000 and an era is about to end. The booming times of market optimism -- when the culture boiled with money and corporations seemed more vital and influential than governments -- are poised to crash. Eric Packer, a billionaire asset manager at age twenty-eight, emerges from his penthouse triplex and settles into his lavishly customized white stretch limousine. Today he is a man with two missions: to pursue a cataclysmic bet against the yen and to get a haircut across town. Stalled in traffic by a presidential motorcade, a music idol's funeral, and a violent political demonstration, Eric receives a string of visitors -- experts on security, technology, currency, finance, and a few sexual partners -- as the limo sputters toward an increasingly uncertain future.
Update from The PlayList We have to admit, our first words upon hearing this were: “What the shit?” Haters gonna hate, but like it or not, Robert Pattinson is in a position to get things green lit, as he is taking over for Colin Farrell in David Cronenberg‘s “Cosmopolis.”
Based on Don DeLillo‘s book of the same name, the film follows 24 hours in the life of a newly married billionaire Eric Packer (Pattinson) as he cheats on his wife, is pursued by a stalker, gets attacked by a protester and gradually loses his entire fortune over the course of a single day. The adaptation was penned by Cronenberg himself and cast is currently rounded out by Marion Cotillard who will play Pattinson’s wife and Paul Giamatti as one of the two men stalking the billionaire. Let’s just slow this down for a second: Robert Pattinson and Marion Cotillard are going to play a married couple.
So why has Farrell bailed? Well, with the actor signed recently signed on to star in the “Total Recall” reboot that is scheduled to go in front of cameras this spring, roughly around the same time as Cronenberg’s film and we figure the bigger paycheck won out. The current plan is for Pattinson to finish his work on “Twilight: Breaking Dawn” with Bill Condon and move right on over to Cronenberg’s film.
Possible spoilers
This Blah site claims they have seen the script. Truckloads of salt,.
Eric has a strained relationship with his wife, 22-year-old Elise Shifrin. He doesn’t seem to know her very well and often asks her “When are we going to have sex again?”
* Elise didn’t realize Eric’s eyes were blue until after they’d been married for 22 days, apparently he likes to keep his sunglasses on
* He cheats on his wife with Didi Fancher, a 40-year-old “scorched blonde”
* He GETS SHIRTLESS. And then he drops his pants and goes spread eagle for a doctor’s exam while speaking to his female co-worker who is in the room
* Eric drinks brandy, drops the F-bomb multiple times and gets into fist fights
* He shoots someone while driving around in his limo
* Eric demands he get tasered, but instead drops vodka on his … er, nether regions
NOTABLE LINE: (Eric) “I like your mother. You have your mother’s breasts.” (Elise) “Her Breasts?” (Eric) “Great stand-up t*ts.”