Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for Australians In FilmRobert Pattinson's headed deep into the jungle.
E! News has confirmed the Twilight heartthrob has signed on to star with Benedict Cumberbatch in James Gray's The Lost City of Z, about famed British explorer Percy Fawcett who vanished in 1925 while searching the Amazon for a mythical lost city.
The film is based on David Grann's 2009 best-seller, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obssession in the Amazon and was originally optioned by Brad Pitt's company, Plan B, as a vehicle for the A-lister. Pitt has since dropped out but will remain as a producer.
The project, which has been languishing in development, gained steam in September after it was announced that Cumberbatch, who made waves this year playing the villain in Star Trek Into Darkness and WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate, was coming aboard to play colonial adventurer.
No word what part Pattinson will play. It's possible however that the 27-year-old actor could fill the role of Fawcett's son as the story chronicles how the two teamed up for the rainforest expedition to prove the existence of a mythical civilization Fawcett called "Z" before both disappeared.
Since wrapping up work on Twilight, Pattinson has maintained a busy workload, filming two movies due for release next year: the Australian crime thriller The Rover from Animal Kingdom director David Michôd and the satirical drama Maps to the Stars, reuniting him with his Cosmopolis filmmaker David Cronenberg.
As for Cumberbatch, he's in theaters now in 12 Years a Slave and will be providing the voice of the titular dragon and The Necromancer in next month's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.