'Life', a new movie about James Dean

Robert Pattinson to star in James Dean biopic … as film icon's friend

Robert Pattinson is set to appear in Anton Corbijn's forthcoming James Dean biopic, Life, though not as the tragic 50s star.

The prospect of the Twilight heartthrob taking to the big screen as the most notable male sex symbol of his era might have been guaranteed to set teenage hearts aflutter. But Pattinson has signed on to play Dean's sometime travelling companion, the photographer Dennis Stock, instead. The film star will be portrayed by Chronicle actor Dane DeHaan, who is currently Hollywood hot property after signing up for the next Amazing Spider-Man movie.

Corbijn's film will see the Dutch director taking on another iconic figure who died long before his time, following on from Control, his critically acclaimed 2007 film about the last years of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. The James Dean biopic, titled Life after the magazine for which Stock was working, will follow the recent trend for movies that touch on a vital period in their subject's life, as opposed to the "cradle to grave" format. Dean's 1955 breakthrough, the melodrama East of Eden, had not yet been released when Stock received an assignment from the Magnum agency to photograph the young actor. The pair ended up becoming friends during a journey from New York to Los Angeles, and on to Indiana, with the photographer capturing iconic images of the nascent

star.http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/06/robert-pattinson-jame s-dea n-biopic