Colin Farrell is in talks to join Lost in Translation director Sofia Coppola's remake of the classic Clint Eastwood film The Beguiled.
The Southern Gothic drama is set during the US Civil War and tells the story of a wounded Union soldier who hides out in an all-girls boarding school in the South and worms his way into the women's affections. Farrell would play the central role in which Eastwood delivered one of the finest performances of his career.
The original film, which was directed by Dirty Harry director Don Siegel and based on the Thomas Cullinan book A Painted Devil, was released in 1971. Variety, which first reported on Farrell's involvement, says Coppola will also write the screenplay for the film. No start date for production has been set.
Farrell's next project is The Killing of a Sacred Deer, a psychological thriller from Irish company Element Pictures which reunites him with The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos.
Element Pictures, which was behind this year's Oscar-winning Room and The Lobster, says The Killing of a Sacred Deer tells the story of "a young man that needs to take revenge, a doctor that has to make a decision, and his family that must survive". Farrell plays a surgeon who takes a teenager into his home - a good deed that does not go unpunished.
Colin Farrell and The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos at the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last year
The Dubliner will next be seen on cinema screens in the JK Rowling adaptation Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The Harry Potter spin-off, which stars Eddie Redmayne as wizard Newt Scamander and Farrell as his pursuer, Percival Graves, is released in cinemas on November 18.
Farrell also narrates the new documentary It's Not Yet Dark, which tells the story of Irish filmmaker and author Simon Fitzmaurice's life with Motor Neuron Disease and is based on his memoir of the same name. The film won the award for Best Irish Feature Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh last Sunday.
