Actress Charlize Theron has been lined up to play the lead role in a film version of Sebastian Barry's novel, The Secret Scripture. The film, which will be shot in Ireland, and produced by Noel Pearson, will see Theron age from a young girl to a 100-year-old inmate of an asylum.

Sources close to the film say actor Alan Rickman is being considered to play one of the main characters.

The script is one of two adaptations of Sebastian Barry novels being made for the big screen by Pearson, whose past credits include My Left Foot and The Field.

An adaptation of A Long Long Way was due to be filmed on location in Flanders in France next summer, but due to financial restraints has been relocated to Co Wicklow.

TV stars Aidan Gillen of The Wire and Sarah Bolger of The Tudors have been linked to the lead roles in the story, which so appealed to Pearson that he bought the film rights before it was published.

Next year looks like being a busy one for the Irish film industry. As well as the two Sebastian Barry adaptations, Knock Out, a spy thriller by Steven Soderbergh, the Oscar winning director of Traffic and Ocean's Eleven, will begin shooting in January.

Part Kung Fu movie, part James Bond, the film stars Las Vegas-born martial arts fighter Gina Carano, 27, in her big-screen debut.

After filming in Ireland, the production will move onto other international locations including Turkey and the United States.

Meanwhile, Ardmore Studios in Wicklow is looking at two possible replacements for The Tudors, the TV3 series which finished shooting earlier this year.

The first is based on the story of King Arthur and the Knights Of The Round Table. This would be a co-production between the BBC and US pay-TV network Showtime.

A second, also in development, is a drama about the Borgias, the notorious Italian family of the 15th and early 16th centuries.