Antonio Banderas to play Picasso

Actor Antonio Banderas has signed on to play famous artist Pablo Picasso in an upcoming film.

The film, titled 33 Dias, will focus on 33 days in 1937, when Picasso was working on his mural Guernica, which was the artist’s response to the destruction of the Spanish town of the same name during the height of the Spanish Civil War. It became one of his most famous works with its depiction of the suffering of innocent civilians during wartime.

Like Picasso, Banderas, 51, is a native of Spain and is roughly the same age as Picasso was when he created the work.

The film will also tie the work with Picasso’s romantic relationship with French artist Dora Maar. There is presently no word on who will play Maar.

"[Picasso] is a character that has pursued me for a long time and I always rejected,” Banderas said. “He deserves a lot of respect because I am from Málaga, and I was born four blocks from where he was born."

Other actors who have played Picasso include Anthony Hopkins and Miguel Ferrer.

Days will be written and directed by Carlos Saura and is set to begin shooting in the summer of 2013 in Paris and Guernica.