Antonio Banderas To Play Gianni Versace

Antonio Banderas has finally found the opportunity to combine his twin passions of fashion and film, as it is announced he has been cast to play Gianni Versace in an upcoming film about the late designer's life.

Banderas surprised the fashion world by enrolling at Central Saint Martins to study menswear design last year, telling daytime television show Loose Women that "Central Saint Martins is probably one of the best schools in the world and so I am going to start studying with them. It makes me feel actually very young to put the elbows on the table again and try to understand another reality."

Details on the film are minimal at the moment, but what we do know is that the project will be directed by Bille August and that filming will begin in December in Milan. According to Italian media reports the set will then move to Reggio Calabria, the town in which Versace was born, and Miami, where he was murdered in 1997.

Versace told WWD that it "has neither authorised nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming movie about Versace. The movie should only be seen as a work of fiction."

Versace's sister and the brand's current vice president and designer, Donatella, posted an Instagram tribute to him on Friday to mark 19 years since his death.