Antonio Banderas in talks to play lead in another Dali biopic

By turns adventurous and steadfastly conventional, Antonio Banderas has had a diverse and often puzzling international career, swerving from aberrant sex comedy in early Almodóvar films to old Hollywood lothario stints in movies like The Mask of Zorro. He's been confined mostly to light paternal roles since, but Variety reports that he is in talks to take the title part in Dali, a third new biopic about the famed surrealist painter Salvador Dali that could be one of the biggest parts of his career.

Set up, strangely enough, for director Simon West, best known for Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, the film seems to be the most direct biopic currently in the works. It will trace the late painter's life with a fantastical visual style modeled to reflect his works with the aid of computer imagery. Production will begin next year.
 
The project joins Andrew Niccol’s Dali & I: The Surreal Story, which stars Al Pacino and Cillian Murphy and explores its subject from the perspective of an art dealer, and Paul Morrison’s Little Ashes, about Dali’s relationship with Federico García Lorca. The latter film has already turned heads across the Atlantic over its apparently frank sexual material and what that will mean for Robert Pattinson, who is about the become a household name with the release of Twilight later this month.

The Surreal Story and Little Ashes are slated for next year; Dali is likely set for a 2010 release.

Related links:
Antonio Banderas on IMDb
LittleAshes-TheMovie.com
SalvadorDaliMuseum.org

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