Al Pacino to play Napoleon

Academy award winner Al Pacino, who longtime wished to play Napoleon, now gets a chance to play the French emperor in an on-screen adaptation of children's book - Betsy and the Emperor.

GC Corp, the venture capital fund, has picked up rights to the project and will assign the production of the film to Killer Films, with plans to begin in late autumn, the Hollywood Reporter said.

Directed by John Curran of the The Painted Veil from a screenplay by Brian Edgar, the film will be based on the children's book by Staton Rabin.

The book is said to be about the true story of Lucia Elizabeth Balcombe, whose father was Napoleon's jailer during his exile on St Helena.

The two struck up a friendship and rumors flew that the exiled Emperor was romancing the teenager, though it has never been proven.