Willem Dafoe to play painter Van Gogh in new biopic

Hollywood star Willem Dafoe is to play the painter Vincent Van Gogh in a new film about the tortured genius said artist Julian Schnabel, its producers said Sunday.

"At Eternity's Gate" takes its title from one of Van Gogh's last canvasses which shows a man holding his head in his hands.

"This is a film about painting and a painter and their relationship to infinity," said Schnabel, who won best director at the Cannes film festival in 2007 for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly".

"It is told by a painter. It contains what I felt were essential moments in his life. This is not the official history -- it's my version," he added.

Schnabel wrote the script with acclaimed French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere.

The film -- which will be shot in France -- centres on Van Gogh's time in the southern French city of Arles and the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris.