Antonio Banderas is set to step into Gianni Versace's shoes to portray the tragic fashion guru in a new biopic.
The Mask of Zorro star, who has become a fashion designer himself, will team up with Oscar-winning director Bille August for the movie, which will begin production in Milan, Italy in December (16).
Scenes for the project, which will chronicle the Versace label founder's life, will also be filmed in Reggio Calabria, the town in southern Italy where Gianni was born, and in Miami, Florida, where the 50-year-old was shot dead outside his home in 1997.
Banderas, 55, has made no secret of his admiration for the style icon, who he recently credited as a big inspiration in the creation of his first clothing collection, a collaboration with Scandinavian brand Selected.
The Spanish actor, who enrolled in famed London art and design school Central Saint Martins last year (15), revealed Gianni's early designs had particularly influenced the style of his embellished leather biker jacket.
"Probably one of the happiest times of my life was the Eighties, and I remember Versace putting gold with leather," he recalled to Women's Wear Daily in May (16). "I had this in mind, so we wanted to add the gold colour, it's those little details. I love motorcycles, I ride motorcycles, so we wanted to have a jacket that I can use and people with bikes can use for that purpose."
The planned biopic is not authorised by the Versace family, and a spokesperson for the luxury label has distanced the brand from the film, insisting officials have "neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming movie about Versace".
"The movie should only be seen as a work of fiction," the representative adds.
News of the film emerges just three days after Gianni's relatives marked the 19th anniversary of his death on Friday (15Jul16).
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