Robert Pattinson, whose new movie Cosmopolis opens this weekend, has signed on to star in Queen of the Desert for writer-director Werner Herzog.

Naomi Watts is attached to star as British writer Gertrude Bell in this biopic. The story chronicles her entire life from being one of the first women to graduate from Oxford, to her adventures as a writer, explorer, cartographer, archaeologist, and political attache.

Robert Pattinson will portray T.E. Lawrence, the British officer whose story served as the basis for director David Lean's 1962 classic Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence and Bell were longtime friends, who both helped establish the Hashemite dynasties in Jordan and Iraq.

Werner Herzog is directing from his own screenplay, with Cassian Elwes and Nick N. Raslan producing. Shooting is scheduled to begin in late fall.