David Cronenberg is usually associated with the stranger side of film-making. Just watch films like Videodrome or his adaptation of William S Burroughs’s unfilmable Naked Lunch to get an idea of how left-of-field his films can get. Admittedly his more recent films, Eastern Promises and A History of Violence, are rather sedate in comparison, but nothing could compare us for this news.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cronenberg’s next film will star Robert Pattinson. Yes, that Robert Pattinson, the one that thinks that trying to look through your forehead is acting. The Twilight star will be the lead in Cronenberg’s adaptation of Don Delillo’s Cosmopolis. The 2003 novel focuses on a single day in a wealthy asset manager’s life as he sits in a limo, driving to a barber. Along the way we learn about his relationship with his wife, his father, and his wealth which seems to be diminishing by the minute as he bets against the Yen. Pattinson is replacing Colin Farrell, who dropped out to star in a remake of Total Recall, and Cosmopolis will co-star Paul Giamatti and Marion Cotillard. In a way, you have to admire Pattinson, who is obviously aware of the pratfalls of playing a teen heart-throb, and this could be the right step in attaining a career as a serious actor. Lets hope he does more than brood.

In other strange Cronenberg news, his next film, due to be released this year, is A Dangerous Method, and charts the relationship between the fathers of modern psychoanalysis, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. Viggo Mortensen will play Freud with the up-and-coming Michael Fassbender playing Jung.