Robert Pattinson has long had the starry-eyed attention of teenage girls who wish they had a super strong vampire in their lives to fight werewolves for them. His next project may get the same attention from ultra-patriotic guys, minus the werewolves.

The 'Twilight' saga star has been tapped to star in a new movie about the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The film is based on the book 'Mission: Black List' by Eric Maddox and Davin Seay about Maddox's work as an Army interrogator during the second US-Iraq war. Maddox led the manhunt for the elusive dictator in 2003 after US forces toppled his regime and sent Hussein into hiding.

Pattinson will play Maddox in the new movie. Erik Jendresen, the screenwriter behind the highly acclaimsed HBO miniseries 'Band of Brothers,' will work on the script. French director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire will spearhead the "psychological thriller."

We haven't read the book or even learned half of the story behind the manhunt for Saddam but Pattinson is an interesting choice for the role of a military strategist. We're not saying he's not a good enough of an actor to pull off the part or even not smart enough to convince people that he's got the chops to be an effective psychological weapon for a major military force. It's just that his image is so ingrained in the 'Twilight' films that it's going to take some doing to separate him from being a super pale vampire.

More From TheFW