Uma Thurman

The expression on Uma Thurman's face in this photo is easy to explain: that's her laughing as she realises she's just become the envy of every teenage girl in the world after landing a role opposite Robert Pattinson in Bel Ami.

Just after playing Medusa in the forthcoming Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, it must come as something of a relief to Thurman to swop the snake hair for a corset for this adaptation of the Guy de Maupassant short story* about  ambitious young Parisian journalist George Duroy (Pattinson) who furthers his career by sleeping his way to the top.

Thurman plays the wife of an army friend of his, Forrestier, who refuses to have an affair with him but helps him with his writing and by introducing him to politicians and giving him political gossip. When her husband dies, the pair marry - but all doesn't go smoothly because this is, after all, based on 19th century literature.

Kristin Scott Thomas is set to play his mistress, Madame Walter, the wife of his editor who becomes clingy when he tries to end the affair. Still to be cast are at least two more conquests and the men with whom Duroy works, as well as his aged parents. Declan Donnellan, best known for his work in London theatre, is making his feature debut with the film, based on an adapted screenplay by Rachel Bennette.

*If, like Empire, you studied Maupassant for A-level French, we apologise for the nasty flashbacks the mention of this name may cause.