BBC Films is to make a new film about Lawrence of Arabia and will co-produce a another big screen project starring Steve Coogan as a male escort.
The Lawrence of Arabia film is being written by Howard Brenton, who scripted three episodes of hit BBC1 drama Spooks, and will cover Lawrence's time in England when he was "hiding away from the world".
Coogan will play a male escort in Call Me, which he is working on with BBC Films and his production company, Baby Cow.
David Lean's 1962 Oscar-winning version of Lawrence of Arabia starred Peter O'Toole as the flamboyant and controversial soldier and adventurer, alongside Alec Guinness and Omar Sharif.
"This is one about Lawrence after Arabia, about his time in England when he was hiding away from the world," said the head of BBC Films, David Thompson
The projects were announced today at the Cannes film festival. The BBC is also developing a series of documentaries with the Natural History Unit about "funny animals", including a feature-length movie on meerkats.
Other recent BBC Films have included Billy Elliot, Mrs Henderson Presents and Woody Allen movie Match Point, starring Scarlett Johansson.
The BBC has two films in competition at Cannes, Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation, about the ills of the fast food industry, and British director Andrea Arnold's Red Road, which is up for the festival's Palme d'Or.
The BBC recently announced it would plough at least £100m of extra investment into the UK film industry. Average spend per year will rise from its current level of £16m to £26m from April 2007.
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