Casting Net: Robert Pattinson heads to the 'Lost City of Z'

• Robert Pattinson is reportedly set to star in the long-gestating adaptation of David Grann’s The Lost City of Z about the British explorer Percy Fawcett, who will be played by Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness). The report did not specify who exactly Pattinson would be playing in director James Gray’s (We Own the Night) adaptation. Brad Pitt, who was originally set to star as the explorer, is now just attached in a producing capacity. Pattinson can be seen next in The Rover and David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, and is currently gearing up to work with Werner Herzog to play T.E. Lawrence in Queen of the Desert. [The Wrap]

• Friday Night Lights alum and Battleship star Taylor Kitsch will play a sadistic cop who terrorizes travelers in the thriller Exit 147 from director Julian Jarrold, who directed the first installment of the terrifying Red Riding trilogy. Kitsch can be seen next in Peter Berg’s based on a true story war tale Lone Survivor (out Jan. 10). [THR]

• Julianne Moore (Don Jon) will star in an adaptation of Lisa Genova’s novel Still Alice. She’ll play Harvard professor Alice Howland who gets Alzheimer’s at age 50. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (Quinceañera)will direct. [Variety]

• James Badge Dale (Iron Man 3), will play a military man looking to expose the secrets of a deceased Hollywood special effects artist in David Mamet’s thriller Blackbird, starring Cate Blanchett. [Deadline]

• Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is attached to star in Seal Team 666, based on Weston Ochse’s book. You might have guessed that it’s about Navy Seals who battle demons. Evan Spiliotopoulos (Hercules) penned the script. [THR]

• Sienna Miller (A Case of You) will star alongside Ryan Reynolds (Definitely, Maybe) and Ben Mendelsohn (The Place Beyond The Pines) in Mississippi Grind, a drama about a pair of poker players who take a southern road trip to try to win back the money they lost from the It’s Kind of a Funny Story writing and directing team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. [Deadline]

• Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight) play a screenwriter recovering from a nervous breakdown (and writing a charming new story about a jealous guy who murders his wife) in the thriller Fade Out, from veteran producer (21 Grams, A Single Man) and first time director Robert Salerno. [Deadline]