British actor Hugh Laurie is to play the leading role in a New Zealand film based on the bestselling novel Mister Pip.
Laurie, who stars as an irascible doctor in the US television drama House, will play the title character based on the 2006 novel of New Zealander Lloyd Jones set during the civil war on in Bougainville.
Filming in Papua New Guinea is set to begin in May and will be directed by New Zealander Andrew Adamson.
Adamson has directed the Chronicles of Narnia films and the first two Shrek movies.
The New Zealand Film Commission, New Zealand on Air, TV3 and a number of overseas parties are funding the Mister Pip project.
Lloyd Jones' novel won several prizes and awards in 2007, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award and the Montana Medal for fiction. It was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
