Helen Mirren will play a female Prospero in a new big screen version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

She will join a highly decorated cast which already includes Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina and Ben Whishaw. Director Julie Taymor has changed the gender of the magician at the heart of Shakespeare's final play in order to cast Dame Helen, who will be known as Prospera. Felicity Jones will play her daughter Miranda, with whom the rightful Duke (now presumably Duchess) of Milan has been marooned on an island after being usurped by his/her brother.

Taymor has experience of big screen Shakespeare adaptations, having directed 1999's Titus, based on the bard's Titus Andronicus, which starred Anthony Hopkins. Mirren has been in high demand since her Oscar-winning turn in The Queen. She will play a former Mossad agent who must cover up the re-emergence of a Nazi war criminal after 30 years in John Madden's thriller The Debt, and has a major part in the forthcoming Hollywood remake of the 2003 BBC TV mini-series State of Play, which will star Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck.

The Tempest, which is generally dated around 1611, has come to be seen as one of Shakespeare's greatest plays by 20th century critics, although it was not hugely popular during the playwright's lifetime.

There have been myriad big screen versions, some sticking closely to Shakespeare's original, others deviating hugely. Derek Jarman directed a sexualised version in 1979, with Toyah Wilcox as Miranda and Heathcote Williams as Prospero. Paul Mazursky's 1982 modern-language version reimagined Prospero as Philip, a disillusioned New York architect who retreats to a lonely Greek island with his daughter. Peter Greenaway's visually opulent Prospero's Books saw John Gielgud finally realise his dream of playing his favourite part on screen. Taymor's version is expected to stick closely to the original text, bar that previously mentioned gender change.