Al Pacino and Jessica Chastain to Star in King Lear Film

Al Pacino and Jessica Chastain will lead a new film version of Shakespeare’s King Lear, according to Deadline.

The movie, titled Lear, Rex, will be adapted and directed for the screen by Bernard Rose (Candyman).

Pacino and an early-career Chastain starred together onstage in a Los Angeles reading of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, which subsequently inspired two films, the 2011 documentary Wilde Salomé, which chronicled the theatrical production, and 2013’s Salomé, which was a film of the play.

Filming is anticipated to begin this summer, with Pacino as Lear and Chastain as Goneril. Further casting has not been announced.