Twilight heart-throb Robert Pattinson is to star in an "erotically charged" period drama set in 19th century Paris.
He will play Georges Duroy in an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's Bel Ami, the tale of a young male journalist who rises to the top of Parisian high society after having an affair with a wealthy older woman.
"It's a totally amoral character," Pattinson said, adding that the role is very different from Twilight's Edward Cullen.
Bel Ami is one of several projects lined up for Pattinson, 23, who will be seen later this month in The Twilight Saga: New Moon.
His next film, Remember Me, is released in February, and he will soon begin work on Unbound Captives, a 19th century Western co-starring Hugh Jackman.
Bel Ami is the first film project from Simon Fuller, the media mogul who created American Idol and was the brains behind the Spice Girls.
Nicole Kidman was reported to have accepted the female role, but later dropped out due to scheduling clashes. The producers describe the film as "an erotically charged story of ambition, power and seduction".
Kidman raised eyebrows this week with a revealing interview in GQ magazine, in which she announced that she had "explored strange sexual fetish stuff".
Subject: Twilight's Robert Pattinson to star in 'erotically charged' drama 
Thu Nov 05, 2009 2:38 pm
