"So excited to share this!" the actor tweeted of the news.
From Scottish time-traveling heartthrob to American movie legend! Outlander star Sam Heughan has been cast as the late Paul Newman in an upcoming untitled biopic about American actress Patricia Neal and her husband, British children's author Roald Dahl, he confirmed on Tuesday.
In addition to Heughan, 39, taking on the role of Newman, Bodyguard actress Keeley Hawes will portray Neal while Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville has been cast as Dahl.
"So excited to share this!" Heughan excitedly tweeted on Tuesday. "Lucky to be part of this beautiful movie, brilliantly lead by @hughbon as Roald Dahl and the amazing @Misskeeleyhawes as Patricia Neal!"
Neal and Newman co-starred in the 1963 film Hud, which earned Neal an Academy Award and Newman a nomination.
The film will follow the lives of Neal and Dahl in the 1960s as they move to the English countryside to raise their young family. According to Deadline, the pair "find their relationship put to the test, and ultimately strengthened, by tragic events."
The movie is being directed by John Hay, and producer Donall McCusker told Deadline, "We are delighted that Sam has joined us, he is the perfect actor to play Paul Newman and a terrific addition to our already wonderful cast.”
According to IMDb, the film, which was previously titled An Unquiet Life, is set to be released in 2020.
In the meantime, fans can still see Heughan as Jamie Fraser in Outlander. ET's Leanne Aguilera caught up with Heughan in October at New York Comic-Con where he opened up about season five of the racy Starz series.
"There is still a lot of humor. There's still a lot of passion," he told ET at the time. "But this whole season, I think, is about family and about family, sort of, needing each other to fight exterior forces."
Here's more with Heughan:
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