Hopkins' 'King Lear' film scrapped

LONDON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A planned film version of William Shakespeare's play "King Lear," starring Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins, was scrapped, reportedly for economic reasons.

Hopkins was to portray the troubled monarch, while Gwyneth Paltrow, Keira Knightley and Naomi Watts were to have played his daughters in the $36 million-budgeted movie, which was announced at last year's Cannes Film Festival in France.

The Telegraph described the cancellation of the project as the first high-profile casualty of the recession in the movie industry.

"Ruby are no longer doing it -- the film will no longer go ahead. It has not really been announced," a spokeswoman for Ruby Films told the newspaper.

A separate "King Lear" project, starring Hollywood actor Al Pacino, remains in the works, the Telegraph said.