Warren Beatty will direct and star in Howard Hughes film

Billionaire tycoon Howard Hughes with actress Gene Tierney

"We heard on Monday that Warren Beatty made a deal with Paramount to produce, write, direct, and star in a new project after a decade-long hiatus from filmmaking. At the time, there were whispers this was the opportunity for Beatty to play legendary movie mogul Howard Hughes, a role the actor has long coveted.

American industrialist, aviator, and film producer Howard Hughes (1905 - 1976) sits with American actress and screen icon Ava Gardner (1922 - 1990) during an event in 1946.

Story details are still scarce, but Deadline hears this is indeed a Hughes-centric project that “involves an affair [Hughes] had with a young woman in the later years of his life.” Beatty’s script is not a biopic, per se. That is understandable, since Beatty is older now (74) than Hughes when he died (70). Deadline’s initial report suggested it may be a comedy.

Warren Beatty dated Natalie Wood in 1962

Beatty is going all out to assemble a supporting cast, meeting with Andrew Garfield, Alec Baldwin, Shia La Beouf, Jack Nicholson, Evan Rachel Wood, Rooney Mara, and wife Annette Bening (duh). Hughes had a lot of famous friends, and I encourage you to match this list of actors to their Old Hollywood counterparts in the comments. Given Beatty’s age, though, the film presumably takes place during Hughes’ recluse years — I do not know who kept him company at this stage in life. More after the jump:

Leonardo DiCaprio played Howard Hughes in "The AViator" (2004) directed by Martin Scorsese

Baldwin, of course, already played Pan Am founder Juan Trippe opposite a fictional Hughes (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in The Aviator. Speaking of such conflict, how do you think Christopher Nolan — another filmmaker fascinated by the Hughes legend — feels about this development? Source: collider.com