Robert Pattinson Suits Up For 'Cosmopolis'

New pictures released from the set of Robert Pattinson’s latest movie, Cosmopolis, might give the mistaken appearance that the actor is headed to a fancy dress party as Agent Smith from The Matrix. In reality the Twilight star is merely getting into character as he looks to tackle the tricky role of Eric Packer, the central figure of David Cronenberg’s screen adaptation of author Don Delillo’s 2003 novel.

Loosely inspired by James Joyce’s celebrated novel, Ulysses, the story tells of a young billionaire and his daylong Odyssey across Manhattan in a state-of-the-art limousine, decked out to the hilt with all manner of gadgets and luxury refinements. Like Joyce’s saga, the story sets itself against the backdrop of an estranged father-son relationship and features several chance hedonistic encounters with highly sexed women.

Looking to reinvent himself post-Twilight, Cosmopolis is a brave choice of project for Pattinson, not least when you consider that the book was largely panned by critics as intelligently written yet oddly dull. Combine that with a director long associated with gory body horror, now best known as the man who introduced us to Viggo's Mortensen via a prolonged, full frontal, naked knife fight in 2007’s Eastern Promises, and the young star has a potential recipe for disaster on his hands.

Pattinson is not the first baby-faced heartthrob to come out of a billion-dollar franchise looking to banish a few ghosts. Attempting to showcase a radically different side of himself, Elijah Wood made one of his firsts stop following five long years as Frodo Baggins the gritty, not to mention appalling, soccer hooligan drama, Green Street. Whatever happened to that guy again?