Pierce Brosnan is to star in an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel 'Across the River and Into the Trees'.

Pierce Brosnan

Pierce Brosnan

Brosnan has joined forces with director Martin Campbell to bring the American author's best-selling 1950 book to the big screen.

Written in Venice during Hemingway's first visit to Italy, the story revolves around ageing Colonel Richard Cantwell who serves in the European country after World War II and who is dying of heart disease.

The book begins with a simple duck hunting trip and then flashbacks of his time during the war and a young Venetian woman he fell in love with.

He also meets an Italian countess during a trip to Venice, who is 30 years his junior, and begins to fall in love with her, and their chance encounter rekindles his hopes of revival.

Hemingway based the two lead characters on real people, his friend Colonel Buck Lanham - a decorated soldier who he met when he was a war correspondent - and a young aristocrat woman with whom he became infatuated.

Filming is due to start in October and Oscar-nominated Michael Radford and BAFTA winner Peter Flannery have adapted the script.

Meanwhile, the former James Bond star and Campbell have previously teamed up on 'Goldeneye'.


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Pierce Brosnan is an Irish actor, film producer, and activist.