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Robert Pattinson has signed up to take a lead role in Claire Denis' sci-fi film. The upcoming untitled Claire Denis project will mark her English-language directorial debut.

Taking place in "a future that seems like the present," the movie is in the early stages of development and doesn't have many details available yet. As of now, the only actor attached to star in the film is Pattinson. Denis also writes the script alongside the acclaimed novelist Zadie Smith and Nick Laird. The plot details are also kept under wraps, but it is obvious that Pattinson will play an astronaut in the stellar movie. The idea comes from Denis and her usual writing partner Jean-Pol Fargeau.

The director will be rolling the cameras later this year or early 2016 in Cologne, Germany. It likely means that fans have to wait at least until 2017 to see the movie in theaters.

Pattinson will next be seen in "Life", the drama about the friendship between photojournalist Dennis Stock and actor James Dean, and in Werner Herzog's "Queen of the Desert", which stars Nicole Kidman and James Franco. Pattinson is currently busy filming James Gray's "The Lost City of Z".