23/09/2008

Irish director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father) is gearing to adapt Robert Graves’ 1934 novel I, Claudius as a feature film.

In addition to directing, Sheridan will write the script with Nye Heron. The novel deals with the mentally challenged Roman emperor who is hailed as the empire’s most successful ruler ever. Josef von Sternberg first filmed the novel in 1937 and was also a popular 1970’s BBC miniseries starring Derek Jacobi, John Hurt and Patrick Stewart.

Relativity Media has acquired the rights for the new version with the company’s Tucker Tooley serving as an executive producer. Sheridan’s current film, Brothers, also produced by Relativity Media, is set for a December release in the US. Sheridan will also direct the Radar Pictures film Emerald City based on the Irish gangs of New York.

Meanwhile, Irish author Eoin Colfer, who wrote the hugely successful Artemis Fowl novels, will see his latest work Airman being given the big screen treatment by producer Robert Zemeckis and director Gil Kenan – the pair responsible for the Oscar-nominated animation feature Monster House.

Airman deals with a young man in 19th century Ireland who revolutionises the world with his innovative flying machines. Colfer has also been commissioned to write the latest addition to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, titled And Another Thing….

Kenan’s forthcoming film is the City of Ember, starring Bill Murray and IFTA winning actress Saoirse Ronan. The film was shot in Belfast last year and opens across Ireland on October 10.