Robert Pattinson plays a criminal launched into space in ‘High Life.’ The next helmet he wears will be in the new Batman film. (Photo: Studio)
Robert Pattinson learned first-hand big franchise films like “Twilight” can make a career and build a bank account. Now he’s about to take on a new franchise character as Batman. The actor has gone trough major career shifts on his way to his new franchise film.
Pattinson, 33, officially won the role on Friday (May 31) and vaulted past his “Twilight” co-star Kristen Stewart, who has longed to play a superhero.
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Four years ago, Stewart reportedly angled for an action-fantasy movie tailor-made for her–the 2015 “X-Men” film.
“I love watching those movies,” she told Yahoo at the time. “I would love to show people that I can do more than just be ‘Kristen Stewart’ in a different movie, in a different circumstance.
“I’m sure I could get on board with Captain America, you know what I mean?… It would just have to be the right thing.”
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But Sophie Turner of “Game of Thrones” ultimately landed the role.
Blockbuster Marvel and DC Comics films have provided steady work and big paychecks for A-list stars, even if they are lightly regarded in Hollywood.
Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence and Gwyneth Paltrow among others have become franchise staples.
Last year, Stewart finally landed a starring role in a “Charlie’s Angels” movie reboot. The show’s concept is somewhat antithetical to her “feminist” lesbianism.
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Stewart is joined by co-stars Naomi Scott, Ella Balinska, Sam Claflin, Noah Centineo, Djimon Hounsou, Elizabeth Banks and Patrick Stewart.
The trailer debuted last month, and the film will hit theaters in November, kicking off the holiday season.
Batman reports swirled earlier this month, and Nicholas Hoult was said to be in the running. But Warner Bros. tipped the role to Pattinson, who will bring his smoldering good looks to the role.
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Pre-production is slated for this summer, but no word yet when Pattinson will begin filming.
Matt Reeves, best known for the two most recent “Planet of the Apes” films, will direct.
Ben Affleck was the most recent Batman film in two Zack Snyder directed films 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and 2017’s “Justice League.”
Pattinson will be starting with a handicap. Both Affleck films were widely panned.
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His return to a big-budget superhero film marks another turn in his career. His movies after “Twilight,” were romances. “Remember Me, (2010)” “Love & Distrust (2010)” and “Water for Elephants (2011)” featured him in the romantic lead.
In 2012’s “Cosmopolis” and “Bel Ami,” Pattinson tackled his first villainous roles. In the former he played an unprincipled financier and the latter a cad and Bel Epoch social climber.
In 2014, he appeared in a string of secondary roles in “The Rover” and “Maps to the Stars.” The following year, he co-starred, again, in “Queen of the Desert” and “Life.”
In 2016, he took a back seat in “The Childhood of a Leader” and “The Lost City of Z.”
But in 2017, his career track shifted again, and he was back in the lead role as Constantine “Connie” Nikas, a small time crook in the movie “Good Time.”
Pattinson returned to comedy last year in the western farce “Damsel” before taking the lead role in the science-fiction horror film, “High Life,” directed by Claire Denis.
The “Twilight” actor also teamed with Johnny Depp last year to co-star in “Waiting for the Barbarians.”
Pattinson will return to an ensemble picture with Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Clémence Poésy, Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh the Warner Bros. film, Christopher Nolan film “Tenet,” a spy epic.
His latest film, “The Devil All the Time,” is a hard-scrabble tale set in the years after World War II in rural Ohio and West Virginia. The characters include a disturbed war veteran, a husband and wife who are serial killers and a fake preacher, according to a synopsis.
Pattinson’s films have been almost exclusively indies.