The rumour mill must be one of the most annoying things about working in Hollywood - especially when something you're really, really excited to announce is screwed up by a leaked, meddling report. Surely nothing would p**s on your chips more.
Well, that was the case for Robert Pattinson when it broke that he was set to become the next lead in the upcoming Batman movie. The only problem was that he hadn't even auditioned for the role when the casting gossip started circulating.
To put it bluntly, the 33-year-old was 'f**king furious' - his words, not mine. Speaking to Variety, the Twilight actor explained that he was on his way to the Cannes Film Festival when someone tipped off the press about the top-secret project.
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Only it wasn't really a top-secret project, because he hadn't even attempted to bag the role at that point.
Worried that the gossip might put off the film company from working with him, he explained: "When that thing leaked, I was f***ing furious. Everyone was so upset. Everyone was panicking from my team. I sort of thought that had blown up the whole thing."
Eventually the news was confirmed by Warner Bros. on 31 May but Pattinson had been keen on it for a while, after hearing that the script focused on a younger version of Bruce Wayne.
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He explained: "I'd had Batman in my mind for a while. It's such an absurd thing to say. I sort of had an idea to do it, and I'd been prodding Matt [Reeves, who's down to direct the movie]. He didn't accept any prods. I kept asking to meet him."
Maybe this was a role he'd been aspiring to take on for much longer than we initially thought, as Pattinson told Variety: "When I was a kid, it was the only outfit that I had."
According to Variety, the script has been finished and shooting will begin in winter with an expected debut in June 2021. Pattinson will follow in the footsteps of Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck.
Pattinson agreed to meet with the movie bosses when the script was finished however it was a tough meeting to have.
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"I had to kind of try to imagine what he'd written, and I hadn't even read the script," the actor told Variety.
"I'd come with this pad full of notes."
With such huge and successful latex boots to fill, it might not come as a surprise that many negative comments have come from the franchise's fanbase, following the casting announcement.
But this isn't something that's going to rain on the Pattinson parade as he explained: "To be honest, it was less vitriolic than I was expecting. It's much more fun when you're an underdog. There's no expectation of you."
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