April 12, 2010 14:52

'Twilight''s Robert Pattinson to play Kurt Cobain in new film?

Reports suggest Scarlett Johansson could portray Courtney Love

Twilight's leading man Robert Pattinson is set to play Kurt Cobain in a forthcoming biopic. The Sun reports that the British actor - known as R-Patz to his teen fans - has landed his "dream role" in the part of the Nirvana frontman.

Pattinson apparently "has always thought of himself as a musician rather than an actor" and so the role is "ideal for the pin-up", according to the paper's source.

A long-standing sticking point in any potential biopic has been Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, however it is suggested the singer will have a "key role" in the project by Universal Pictures, and she has been in regular contact with Pattinson.

Scarlett Johansson is rumoured to be the Hole frontwoman's first choice to play her.

David Fincher - the Fight Club director currently working on The Social Network, a film about the founding of Facebook - is believed to be in line to direct.

It was reported in February that Oren Moverman, writer and director of the double Oscar-nominated The Messenger, was lined up to take over a another Cobain-based project, with the brief of rewriting the script and then directing.

That film was said to be based partially on Charles R Cross' biography Heavier Than Heaven, which Love had already optioned.