Freida Pinto to star opposite Antonio Banderas

Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto is set to star opposite Spanish actor Antonio Banderas in a Hollywood period film.

The film, titled Black Thirst, is directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, reports the News.

It is the story of how America, in pursuit of oil, started targeting the Gulf as early as 1920.

Pinto plays the role of an Arabian princess and is paired opposite Rahim, but she has a lot many scenes with Banderas.

The film is based on Hans R Ruesch's globally acclaimed work South of the Heart: A Novel of Modern Arabia published in 1957.

The film is Pinto's sixth straight international film after Rise of the Apes, Immortals, Miral, You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger and Slumdog Millionaire.

Photograph: Mike Cassese/Reuters