Given the sheer number of projects he has on the development hob at any one time, we think it’s unlikely Ridley Scott will start making his Gertrude Bell film anytime soon. So the way really does seem clear for Werner Herzog, who already has Naomi Watts and Robert Pattinson on board and has just added Jude Law to Queen Of The Desert.

The film chronicles the life and adventures of Bell (Watts), a pioneering academic, writer, archaeologist and attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the 20th Century. She was one of the first women to graduate from Oxford and helped administer the modern Iraqi state.

Pattinson is playing T.E. Lawrence, the inspiration for David Lean’s Lawrence Of Arabia and a frequent collaborator of Bell's. Law’s role isn’t specified in the Hollywood Reporter’s story, but he could theoretically be on as Charles Doughty-Wylie, with whom Bell had an unconsummated affair over two years.

Herzog is targeting a March shooting start in Morocco. Watts will next be seen in tsunami drama The Impossible, while Pattinson’s next is a little film called The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2. Law will be heard in Rise Of The Guardians and seen in Dom Hemingway and Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects next year (you can see the trailer for the latter right here).

Herzog fans should pick up the latest issue of Empire where you'll find his hilarious Pint Of Milk interview alongside all the Hobbit coverage you could desire. It's available in all nrewsagents from here to Middle-earth and also on the iPad.