Taron Egerton is replacing Robert Pattinson as the star of Claire Denis’ romantic thriller Stars at Noon, based on a 1986 novel by Denis Johnson, the Hollywood Reporter reports.
Pattinson, who previously worked with Denis on her critically acclaimed 2019 SF feature High Life, left the project due to conflicting shooting commitments. At the time of High Life’s release, Denis told Deadline that she would love to work with Pattinson again, stating “Once wasn’t enough.”
Stars at Noon is set in 1984 against the violent and politically tumultuous backdrop of the Nicaraguan revolution. It follows the ill-fated romance between the employee of a shady British oil company, to be played by Egerton, and a struggling reporter, to be played by Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood’s Margaret Qualley.
A starred Kirkus review called Johnson’s novel “an evocative and potently depressing travelogue” in which “Nicaragua comes off as a catastrophe plain and simple. And a menacing one, too.”
Egerton made his debut in the 2014 drama Testament of Youth, based on the World War I memoir by Vera Brittain, and went on to play a starring role in the Kingsman film series, based on the comic books by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. More recently, he earned acclaim for his performance as Elton John in the 2019 biopic Rocketman.
Ilana Bensussen Epstein is a writer and filmmaker based in Boston.
