Robert Pattinson and Robert De Niro team up for an art-house heist

R-Patz and, er, R-Dez have signed up to Olivier Assayas’s Idol’s Eye alongside Rachel Weisz.

Billed as a “sophisticated heist/action thriller”, the film takes its cue from a 2007 Playboy article called Boosting The Big Tuna – the real story of a gang of small-time crooks who accidentally rob a pawn store owned by Chicago mafia boss Tony Accardo.

No word yet on further plot details (although it’s likely De Niro will play Accardo to Pattinson’s inept shoplifter), but it’s Assayas’s name that keeps us interested.

Fresh from pushing Clouds Of Silas Maria around the Croisette, the French director made his Cannes debut back in 1994 with Cold Water before making art-house waves with the likes of Late August, Early September, Clean and Something In The Air . In other words, he’s not your average Hollywood hack making another gangster movie.

With Assayas looking set to put an interesting spin on an old story, De Niro in desperate need of a weighty role and Pattinson’s recent track record for picking interesting projects, Idol’s Eye seems like one to watch. Even despite the stupid title…