Jeremy Renner has been cast to star as Doc Holliday in a new biopic.

Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Renner

The 'Avengers' actor is to play 19th century American gunslinger Doc Holliday after Palmstar Media required the rights to adapt the Mary Doria Russell novels.

The adaptation will be produced by Kevin Frakes, Renner and Don Handfield.

In a joint statement, Renner and Handfield said: "We are excited to re-introduce this classic American character to a whole new audience by chronicling Doc Holliday's incredible transformation from Average Joe dentist to a man who Wyatt Earp called the 'nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun he ever knew.

"Jeremy Renner as Doc Holliday ... awesome."

The novels, 'Doc' and 'Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral', follow the life and times of John Henry 'Doc' Holliday a normal dentist who turns into a Wild West gunfighter who secured his place in Old West lore after making a stand with Wyatt Earp in a gunfight in the Arizona territory in 1881.

This is not the first time Doc Holliday has been portrayed on screen with Kirk Douglas starring in the 1957 film 'Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'.

Holliday was then portrayed in the 1971 'Doc' starring Stacey Keach and then Dennis Quaid took the reins in the 1994 movie 'Wyatt Earp'. Most recently Val Kilmer starred as the shooter in 1993's 'Tombstone'.

As well as taking on the role of Holliday, Renner, 46, will be reprising his role as Hawkeye in the upcoming 'Avengers: Infinity War' film, which will be released in 2018.