BBC Enlists Anthony Hopkins & Ian McKellen for New Screen Adaptation of THE DRESSER

The BBC has snared another pair of all-stars.

According to The Telegraph, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Sir Ian McKellen will unite to lead a new screen adaptation of the play THE DRESSER for the network. Sir Richard Eyre will direct.

The report confirms that McKellen will play the supportive dresser who rouses and inspires the flailing Shakespearean actor, 'Sir,' to be played by Hopkins.

"This is our emphatic answer to all those people who say that the BBC is no longer interested in serious drama," a source told the publication. "The negotiatons between the key players have taken some time, but now it's a done deal. We are absolutely thrilled."

BBC has yet to make an official announcement on the casting.

Most recently, Hopkins appeared in Red 2, Thor: The Dark World, and Noah. He is also starring in Alfredson's upcoming film, Kidnapping Freddy Heineken.

Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage, and television, and a composer and painter. After graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 1957, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and was then spotted by Laurence Olivier who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre. In 1968, he got his break in film in The Lion in Winter, playing Richard I.

Considered to be one of the greatest living actors, Hopkins is well known for his portrayal of HANNIBAL Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, its sequel Hannibal, and the prequel Red Dragon. Other notable films include The Mask of Zorro, The Bounty, Meet Joe Black, The Elephant Man, Magic, 84 Charing Cross Road, Bram Stoker's Dracula, LEGENDS of the Fall, Thor, The Remains of the Day, Amistad, Nixon, The World's Fastest Indian, Instinct, and Fracture.

Along with his Academy Award, Hopkins has also won three BAFTA Awards, two Emmys and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. In 1993, Hopkins was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003, and was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2008.

Ian McKellen won the Tony Award for his performance in Amadeus in 1981. Patrick Stewart first appeared on Broadway in Peter Brook's production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1971 and won the Drama Desk Award for A Christmas Carol in 1992. McKellen and Stewart have appeared together on stage twice before - in the 2009 West End production of Waiting for Godot and in the 1977 premiere of Tom Stoppard's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. Billy Crudup, won a Tony Award for The Coast of UTOPIA in 2007. Shuler Hensley won a Tony Award for Oklahoma! in 2002. Sean Mathias, Tony nominated for his direction of Indiscretions, directed Billy Crudup in The Elephant Man in 2002.