There’s something I love about the idea of Robert Pattinson, on the press tour for a film which could be seen as his “coming out,” getting the opportunity to boast about a project he’s doing with David Michôd. Probably because he’s only coming closer and closer to full-on legitimacy the nearer we get to the end of a certain franchise, and this, here, is a wonderful coalescing of evidence.

Our information comes from ThePlaylist, whose discussion with the actor and David Cronenberg — not that the latter is involved in this instance — gave a much better idea as to what The Rover may bring. It’s not what I was expecting, as the Animal Kingdom director is, according to Pattinson, hoping to make an “existential” second feature, with the main idea of this western-like drama being “how much pain can the world take and how much disgust and cruelty before love dies.” (Cronenberg is said to have called it “pretty heavy.”)

That’s far more ambitious than our prior report, which pegged The Rover as a near-future story in which a man, a) named Reynolds and b) played by Guy Pearce, treks across the Australian outback in an attempt to recover his stolen car from a gang of punks — one of whom is portrayed by Pattinson. My thoughts went more toward Mad Max and further from The Proposition.

I’m fine with that, though. Existentialist cinema is right up my alley — this doesn’t always make me a good conversationalist at parties, sadly — so we’re good there; seeing Pattinson delve further into out-there sorts of films is icing on the cake. Look at me, rooting on the pretty boy all of a sudden.

Does he make The Rover sound more peculiar than you had anticipated?