King Lear: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Andrew Scott and Christopher Eccleston to star in new BBC adaptation

The BBC is making a new TV movie based on Shakespeare's King Lear, and it has assembled a mighty cast.

Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson will lead it, their first collaboration since the early 90s' The Remains of the Day (an adaptation of a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature this week).

They will be joined by Andrew Scott (Sherlock) and Christopher Eccleston (The Leftovers), with Richard Eyre helming the project - the director best known for Notes on a Scandal and his work in theatre.

King Lear will, according to Deadline, be set in the fictional present, Hopkins playing 'the eponymous ruler presiding over a totalitarian military dictatorship in England' and Thompson starring as his older daughter Goneril.

Emily Watson and Florence Pugh will co-star as Rehan and Cordelia respectively.

King Lear will be broadcast on BBC Two in 2018, with Amazon Studios co-producing, taking the film to the US and Germany, and streaming it in the UK following the BBC run.