Twilight star Robert Pattinson is set to play the man who spearheaded the hunt to track down Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein, according to reports.

The 25-year-old British actor, who shot to fame as vampire Edward Cullen, has signed up to star as a US military interrogator in his next big-screen role, in the psychological thriller Mission: Blacklist.

Mr Pattinson will play Eric Maddox, whose interrogations led to the capture of Hussein in a hole at a farmhouse near his hometown of Tikrit, by US forces in December 2003.

He pinpointed Hussein’s location while assigned to a special operations task force in Tikrit, just hours before his tour was due to end. Mr Pattinson’s new film is based on the book, written by Maddox and Davin Seay, Mission: Black List #1: The Inside Story Of The Search For Saddam Hussein − As Told By The Soldier Who Masterminded His Capture.

Producer Ross M. Dinerstein said the film would be “a gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller” and that Mr Pattinson and the film’s director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire wanted “to tell this story in the most authentic way possible”, Deadline reported.

Mr Pattinson has recently been re-shooting technical scenes for Breaking Dawn: Part 2, the final film in the Twilight franchise.

His new film, Cosmopolis, directed by David Cronenberg, will be shown in competition at the Cannes film festival later this month.