Beryl Vertue, the legendary producer of Men Behaving Badly, has signed Bruce Willis to star in her first Hollywood movie.
A US version of her latest comedy hit, Coupling, is also in the pipeline.
The veteran comedy producer has returned to film-making after a break of three decades with a script written by her son-in-law, sitcom writer Steven Moffat.
The project, titled Me Again, will be made by Ms Vertue's Hartswood Films outfit and has been backed by the British production house Intermedia.
"Steven is brilliant at writing characters and plot construction, so I told him he should write a comedy thriller for the cinema. He came back with Me Again. I gave a one-line premise of the film to BBC Films, which commissioned it on the spot," she says.
"The screenplay turned out so well I felt it could be an international film that could attract a big star. It seems I was right when I then got Intermedia's backing."
The signing of a major box office star such as Bruce Willis is a major coup for Ms Vertue, who has been dying to tell the world ever since his office gave a positive reaction to scripts last November.
However, she had been sworn to secrecy in case the deal fell through.
Intermedia will sell worldwide rights, while BBC Films will control UK sales.
Ms Vertue's Hollywood coup adds to a reputation built on shrewd deal-making and astute talent-spotting.
She has financed Hartwood Films through selling comedy formats abroad, and has no intention of abandoning TV, with a spoof of hospital soaps called Main Central Emergency Hospital Ward in the pipeline.
"I really like television. You get a far, far bigger audience than for films. Also, it is so rewarding because you can really take control of everything," she tells the Financial Times.
She also attacks the standard of recent British films, saying the emphasis on raising finacne has been to the detriment of scripts.
"In TV, if you're an independent you have to be resourceful because you haven't got troughs of projects in development," she adds.
"The difference between the TV and film industries is that in TV, the programme doesn't start until the scripts are ready. In film, people make it if they have the money, even if the script isn't ready, which is why there have been so many poor British films recently."
But she adds that Tiger Aspect, the production outfit behind Billy Elliot and Kevin And Perry Go Large, had shown that good TV writers can create high quality films.
"It's a good time for film projects from British TV producers because the snobbery has finally disappeared. Also, film companies are now trying to pick up the best TV writers," she says.
Her daughter Sue Vertue worked at Tiger Aspect before joining Hartswood and is married to Mr Moffat.
Ms Vertue created Associated London Films with sitcom writers Alan Simpson, Ray Galton and Jonny Speight in the early 1960s, producing a film version of the Up Pompeii series.
