Al Pacino is set to play the diminutive French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in a new film.
The equally pint-sized Pacino, last seen starring alongside Russell Crowe in the award-winning The Insider, will star in Betsy and the Emperor, a drama based loosely on the French emperor's exile on St Helena after his fall from grace, according to Yahoo! News.
French director Patrice Chereau will direct the picture from an unpublished manuscript by novelist Staton Rabin. Screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, best known for The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has adapted the script. It will fictionalise the true story of Bonaparte's relationship with the young daughter of his jailer on the island
Pacino is reported to have become involved with the project after actress Colleen Camp handed him a copy of Carrière's script.
Production is not thought to start until next year, as Pacino is currently shooting Simone for director Andrew Niccol. It features Pacino as a film producer who can't find his ideal leading lady and so has one digitally made.
