"According to Italy's Il Corriere della Sera (via Screen Daily), producer Dino De Laurentiis has re-assured that he is moving forward with plans to film his Alexander the Great project, to be directed by Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) and to star Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman.

We will shoot the film in one year's time, and it will be the Alexander that everyone has been waiting for, De Laurentiis said, confirming the talent that was attached to the project when it was announced in 2003.

De Laurentiis's film was put on hold when Oliver Stone's rival Alexander project started in 2004. I don't want to hit out against Oliver Stone, who merits respect. But his picture was certainly flawed, and was missing the spine of a screenplay, the Italian producer told the Milan newspaper.

He added that epic films are difficult to do well. King Arthur was also flawed. It badly copied ideas from the third film in my schedule, which is based on Valerio Massimo Manfredi's novel, 'The Last Legion'.

The Last Legion is set during the fall of the Roman empire and tells the true story of a group of legionaries who go to Britain to save the young emperor of Rome who has been kidnapped by barbarians. De Laurentiis said that Carlo Carlei is no longer attached to direct that project and a new director has not been announced.

Meanwhile, De Laurentiis is currently preparing Decameron, an adaptation of the 14th century Italian classic by Giovanni Boccaccio. The $38 million drama, written and directed by David Leland, will start shooting in April in Rome and Tuscany.

Hayden Christensen (Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith) plays the lead role of Lorenzo, starring opposite Mischa Barton (The O.C.), who plays Pampinea.

Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli heads the production's art department. You won't be seeing any leotards, De Laurentiis warned. The costumes and sketches I've seen are wonderful, and are adapted to young people on the road today.

Boccaccio's Il Decameron (c.1351) is a series of one hundred stories written in the wake of the Black Death. The stories are told in a country villa outside the city of Florence by ten young noble men and women who are seeking to escape the ravages of the plague.

De Laurentiis's upcoming projects also include The Lecter Variation, which follows Hannibal Lecter from his childhood in Lithuania through a period in Paris to his arrival in the US. The film will feature Lecter at the ages of 8, 14 and 20. De Laurentiis confirmed that the movie will be directed by Peter Webber, and the cast will include Gong Li (Memoirs of a Geisha).

Source: /www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=8463"">Coming Soon."