Robert Pattinson Joins Timothée Chalamet In Netflix Period Drama ‘The King’
Twilight star Robert Pattinson is upping the heartthrob quotient in Netflix's The King. He joins Timothée Chalamet in the upcoming Shakespearean adaptation.
Joining The Illustrious Ranks
Pattinson joins fellow recent cast additions Sean Harris (Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation), Rogue One villain Ben Mendelsohn, and Lily-Rose Depp (Yoga Hosers) in the period drama.
David Michod, director of the Brad Pitt-starring Netflix movie War Machine, as well as Aussie crime drama the Animal Kingdom, is on hand to helm the production. Shooting starts June 1 in the U.K.
The flick is scripted by Joel Edgerton, the breakout star of the Animal Kingdom, who also takes a starring role here. Pitt's Plan B is producing along with Liz Watts, who also produced the Animal Kingdom, as well as The Rover, in which Pattinson starred.
Mining The Story For Drama
The story centers on two plays, Henry IV and Henry V. Young Chalamet, currently at the top of every must-cast list following his turns in Greta Gerwig's Oscar-nominated Lady Bird and opposite Armie Hammer in Call Me By Your Name -- for which he was nominated for an Academy Award -- takes on the complicated leading role.
Set in the 1300s, Hal, soon to become Henry V, is a young, disgraced prince who inherits the crown in his twenties. He has to learn what it means to be king, in the shadow of war.
He's guided in his quest by the only friend he can really trust, Falstaff (Edgerton). To complicate matters, England is also on the precipice of going to war with France.
The two beloved plays take place in the midst of England's ongoing military conflict with France at the famous Battle Of Agincourt in 1415, which formed part of the infamous Hundred Years War between the two countries.
The Role Of A Lifetime
Pattinson is set to play French duke The Dauphin, with Mendelsohn as King Henry IV, Depp as Princess Catherine, the daughter of the French king who marries Hal, and Harris as William in The King.
Rounding out the cast are Dunkirk's Tom Glynn-Carney and Leave No Trace's Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, who portray nobleman/rebel Hotspur and Henry V's little sister Philippa, respectively.
This is a massive role for Chalamet. Previous actors to have played the iconic king include the great Laurence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh, and even Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston. The flick is scheduled to hit Netflix next year.
Pattinson, meanwhile, is on a hot streak following his critically lauded performance in the Safdie Brothers' New York-set crime thriller, Good Time.
