Pacino Preps KING LEAR for the Big Screen

Variety has announced that Al Pacino will play the title role in "King Lear," an adaptation of the Shakespeare play that will be directed by Michael Radford. Radford, who wrote the script, is making his second Shakespearean foray with Pacino after their 2004 collaboration "Merchant of Venice," which cast Pacino as Shylock.

Barry Navidi will produce and teamed with Pacino on "Merchant" as well as the upcoming "Salomaybe?," which Pacino directed and stars in, based on the Oscar Wilde play.

Considered by many to be Shakespeare's greatest achievement, this towering masterpiece brings one of literature's greatest anti-heroes to life in a tale where fools and madmen lead the blind through a harrowing symbolic journey of epic proportions.

While Pacino has played many Shakespearean characters, he has never played King Lear reveals Variety. Lear is the aging monarch who selects his successor by parsing his kingdom in three parts, ruled by his trio of daughters. Two of them are scheming connivers who flatter their father, while the one loving daughter, Cordelia, refuses to play that game and is exiled. The king ultimately loses everything.

"King Lear" has been filmed several times with Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles and Paul Scofield among those in the title role.

Radford will shoot the picture entirely in Europe, starting later this year. Pic is being financed out of the U.K. and Northern Ireland.