LOS ANGELES, Oct 29 ― Actress Rachel Weisz has been cast as Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor in a new biopic, from a script by Academy Award-winner writer Simon Beaufoy of Slumdog Millionaire.

Weisz ― who also won a best supporting actress Oscar in 2006 for her turn in A Constant Gardener and was nominated in the same category this year for The Favourite ― will play Taylor in the new film, which aims to tell the star's journey from actress to AIDS activist.

Titled A Special Relationship ― and drawn from hours of interviews and exclusive conversations with people who knew Taylor ― the plot aims to shift the focus away from the glamorous and scandalous life that most associated with the Oscar-winning actress and create what the filmmakers have described as a "never-before-seen portrait of the real woman behind the violet eyes”.

Told through the lens of her friendship with her assistant Roger Wall ― a gay man who grew up in poverty in the homophobic Deep South ― the film will recount how, despite their different backgrounds, they developed a deep friendship that would alter the course of both of their lives (via The Hollywood Reporter).

The project is being produced by See-Saw Films (The King's Speech, Lion) and will be directed by fast-rising female filmmaking duo Bert & Bertie (Troop Zero), with See-Saw's in-house sales arm Cross City Films to launch sales for A Special Relationship” on the American Film Market in November. ― AFP-Relaxnews