Law for silent film star biopic?

Jude Law could be set to play silent film star Douglas Fairbanks in a new movie about the life of his screen idol wife, according to reports.

Producers want to cast the British actor in a biopic about Mary Pickford, Forbes said, the silent film star who married Fairbanks in 1920.

The couple were Hollywood royalty and founded the studio United Artists with Charlie Chaplin.

Fairbanks was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Baghdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark Of Zorro.

But the US actor, screenwriter, director and producer, who hosted the first Oscars Ceremony in 1929, saw his career decline with the rise of the "talkies" and he died in 1939.

Forbes said that Broadway star Lily Rabe has already been signed up to play Mary Pickford in the movie, based on Eileen Whitfield's book, Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood.

Jennifer DeLia, who is producing along with Al Pacino's daughter Julie Pacino, will direct, it said.