'Twlight' meets 'Wolverine': Robert Pattinson and Hugh Jackman joining forces

Robert Pattinson and Hugh Jackman will bring the worlds of vampires and mutants together in "Unbound Captives." Well, not really, but it will be a lot of starpower for a period western.

Credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew/Chris Pizzelo

Two of the biggest stars on the planet and a recent Best Actress Oscar winner are making Madeline Stowe's dream come true.  The actress best known for her work in "The Last of the Mohicans" will make her directorial and screenwriting debut with the drama "Unbound Captives."  More enticing, Variety reports that Robert Pattinson, Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz have joined the cast of the independent film.

A period Western set in 1859, "Captives" will find Weisz playing a woman whose husband is murdered and two children are kidnapped by a Comanche war party. A frontiersman played by Jackman rescues her.  Pattinson will play a son, but its unclear if that is Weisz's or Jackman's.  Curiously, the plot is strangely familiar to Ron Howard's "The Missing," but "Captives" has a long development history preceding that thriller.

Hoping to create a star vehicle for herself, Stowe originally wrote the script with her husband, Brian Benben, in the early 90s under a pseudonym.  In 1993, 20th Century offered her up to $5 million for the script with Ridley Scott set to direct and Russell Crowe to star. Stunningly, Stowe turned it down because the studio wouldn't guarantee a starring role in the project.  Eventually, years later, producer Gil Netter convinced her to consider directing the film herself.  And while she's a newbie, financiers are reassured with two-time Academy Award winning cinematographer John Toll ("Braveheart") on board to lend some experience to Stowe's crew.

Pattinson, who agreed to star in the film before "Twilight" exploded at the box office last year, is currently shooting "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."  As "Captives" is expected to begin filming at the end of the year, it seems he'll segue to the picture immediately after "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" wraps this fall.

Jackman, who is riding the success of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," has numerous projects he could fit in his schedule before "Captives" including the thriller "Drive."  Weisz will be seen later this fall in "The Lovely Bones" and just committed to star as screen icon Hedy Lammar in a new biopic.

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