Werner Herzog, a legend of film-making if there ever was one, is 72 today. To celebrate the German maverick, Nick Mitchell looks back at five films from his long and varied career you have to see.
Cast and crew nearly killed? Animals abused? Must be Werner Herzog.
THR:
Robert Pattinson is attached to play Lawrence of Arabia in Queen of the Desert, Werner Herzog’s biopic of Gertrude Bell.
Naomi Watts is starring as Bell, described as the female Lawrence of Arabia for the impact the English woman had in the Middle East and her work in establishing what would become the modern framework for Jordan and Iraq. She was an explorer, writer, archeologist and political attache and worked for British Intelligence during World War I.
Pattinson will play T.E. Lawrence, the archeologist-turned-British Army officer who played key roles in Middle Eastern revolutions in the same time period and became close friends with Bell. Peter O'Toole earned an Oscar nom for portraying the explorer in the 1962 classic Lawrence of Arabia.
Slashfilm: You may recall that Werner Herzog has been prepping a film called Queen of the Desert, in which Naomi Watts is set to play English writer, explorer, and archaeologist Gertrude Stein. Now Pattinson has been attached to play T.E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia, in Herzog’s film. Lawrence was a colleague and friend to Bell, and casting Pattinson suggests that he’ll figure prominently in Herzog’s take on Bell’s history.
