Peter O'Toole thinks a new film written by an English doctor is his prescription for a long-overdue Oscar.
The veteran actor has been nominated an incredible eight times in the Best Actor category, but only has an honorary Oscar, given in 2003, on his mantelpiece.
But now he thinks he's found the role that'll bag him a golden statuette, in period epic Love And Vision, which was written by Dr Mia Sperger, a consultant radiologist from Liverpool. The £13.5million film depicts the battles of king Charlemagne, the first ruler of a united Western Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. O’Toole plays Atlantes, a sorcerer.
Sperger recalled how when O'Toole agreed to take the part, he told her: "This is my Oscar."
Describing the film, director Raul Ruiz added: "There were so many possibilities. If I were to single out what most stands out about Love And Virtue, it would be its extraordinarily poetic and visionary character."
O'Toole will appear alongside John Malkovich and Daryl Hannah in Love And Virtue, which starts filming in Belgium and London this August.