Burton and Taylor love affair to be made into film

The film about Taylor and Burton is based on the book, 'Furious Love,' which chronicles their passionate affair Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the tempestuous lovers whose scandalous affair and double marriages fascinated the world in the second half of the 20th century, are headed back to the big screen

, escorted by Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese.

Liz and Dick, both now gone (Taylor died in March, Burton in 1984), will be the stars of a movie based on a recent book, Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century, by Nancy Schoenberger and Sam Kashner, published by HarperCollins last year.

Schoenberger and producer Gary Foster of Krasnoff Foster Entertainment confirmed that they and Paramount are close to completing a deal to option the book as a film to be directed by Scorsese. Foster said an agreement has been reached with the Burton estate, and talks have started with Taylor's estate.

The deal, which also includes producer Julie Yorn and Scorsese's production company, was first reported by the online movie site Deadline.

"It's not a biopic of Taylor or Burton, this is about their relationship — that sexy, world-renown, spontaneous and challenging and passionate relationship," says Foster. "We're unbelievably excited to be in business with Martin Scorsese. To have a director of that magnitude is wonderful."

The book, which was excerpted in Vanity Fair, focuses on the tectonic effect of the couple's meeting on the Rome set of the 1963 film Cleopatra, with Taylor playing the doomed last pharaoh of Egypt and Burton as her lover, the Roman general Marc Antony. Both actors were married to others at the time (Taylor, 29, was already on her fourth husband), and neither cared, giving themselves over to a torrid affair in sunny Rome.

The movie they made was late, overdone and over budget, and a disappointment at the box office. But their affair made headlines around the world, establishing the global reach of celebrity news and ushering in the era of the paparazzi and celebrity stalking.

Taylor always said Burton was the love of her life, even if they couldn't live together. She made available to the authors of Furious Love many of the letters Burton wrote to her over the years that followed Cleopatra— years of making love, fighting, spending, drinking, traveling and marrying (they married twice before divorcing for good).

So who will play the couple? "Too early to say. We haven't even hired a screenwriter," says Foster.

But as a matter of interest, Angelina Jolie is playing Cleopatra in director David Fincher's re-telling of the tale of the queen of the Nile, which is based on the new and acclaimed bio, Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff. "Physically, she's the perfect look" for Cleopatra, Schiff told USA TODAY last year.

But judging from the few coin-based portraits that exist, Cleo wasn't much to look at. Jolie, whose beauty is almost as legendary as Taylor's was in her time, might be better suited to play Liz.
 

From USA Today