Having played both Shakespeare and Martin Luther, Joseph Fiennes is taking on Antonio Vivaldi as his next historical role. Boris Damast, a television director who has reportedly spent two decades researching the Four Seasons composer's life, is making his big screen debut as a film-maker on the biopic. Another relative unknown, Steven Freedman, has written the screenplay.

The pair have managed to attract a high-profile cast to the project, however. As well as Fiennes, seen most recently on British screens as Bassanio in the Merchant of Venice, Malcolm McDowell, Gerard Depardieu and Jacqueline Bisset have all signed up.

The film will centre on Vivaldi's life from his early experiences as a young priest working as music master at a school for abandoned illegitimate daughters in Venice. His charges' music soon develops an international reputation and Vivaldi is honoured with an audience with the Pope.

The film is currently shooting in Venice and Vienna.