The 'Shaun of the Dead' actor has been officially tapped to play a major role in the upcoming English-language adaptation of the 1952 critically-lauded movie 'Ikiru'.

AceShowbiz - Bill Nighy is to star in a Kazuo Ishiguro penned English-language remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic 1952 movie "Ikiru".

The movie, titled "Living", will be directed by South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus and also star Aimee Lou Wood.

The "Remains of the Day" author has written the script for the remake, which like the original follows a civil servant who, alongside a young co-worker, searches for more meaning in life after discovering he has a terminal illness.

In a press release announcing the new film, Ishiguro says, "I believe this story can speak to the many of us obliged to spend long hours each day anchored to desks and screens - all the more so in this era of Covid - struggling to see what our individual contributions can possibly amount to within the broader picture."

Hermanus adds, "At the heart of Living is the message that one's purpose, one's footprint can be incremental, slight and somewhat unnoticeable in the grand scheme of things. But that these attainable efforts to help others and be a force of good in the world are what life and living is about. I think the world could use more stories like this, perhaps now more than ever before."

"Ikiru" was partly inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and won a host of awards after its 1952 release, including a special prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 1954. It has been listed among the greatest films of all time.

The new remake will begin shooting on location in the U.K. next spring (21).

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