The life and bizarre death of disgraced newspaper mogul Robert Maxwell is to be turned into a Hollywood movie by the man who produced American Psycho.
It will be based on the West End play about the former Mirror Group owner, Lies Have Been Told.
US film mogul Edward R Pressman, whose films include Reversal Of Fortune, Wall Street and new movie Thank You For Smoking, bought the rights to the drama after seeing it at London's Trafalgar Studios earlier this year - where it has returned for a second run.
The stage show's producer is Dale Djerassi, who used to be married to Maxwell's daughter Isabel.
Mr Pressman told the Standard: "Maxwell has always fascinated me and the play was very impressive. I saw a character that could be the base of a wonderful movie. He's like the Jeremy Irons character in Reversal Of Fortune - a very complex individual whose morality was an issue of debate."
He hopes to take the play to New York this autumn before beginning filming next year. He hopes Philip York, the British actor who plays Maxwell on stage, will reprise his role for the cinema.
In 1991 Maxwell, 68, vanished from his yacht off the Canaries and his body was found floating in the ocean. Disgraced for siphoning millions from the Mirror Group's pension fund, he was decorated for bravery during the Second World War.
