Eileen Atkins, Matthew Rhys Set for Scapegoat Film

Stage and screen stars Eileen Atkins and Matthew Rhys will star in a screen adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1957 novel The Scapegoat, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Charles Sturridge will write the screenplay and direct.

The plot centers on a man who meets his perfect double and is forced to change places with him. The project is the debut movie production from Island Pictures, and is due for transmission on ITV1 in 2012, to be followed by worldwide theatrical distribution.

Atkins is a four-time Tony Award nominee for The Retreat From Moscow, Indiscretions, Vivat, Vivat, Regina! and The Killing of Sister George, and most recently starred on Broadway in Doubt.

Rhys will star in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s upcoming production of John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, and previously starred in the West End in The Graduate. He is best known for playing Kevin Walker on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters.