Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz accept Gambit

Cameron Diaz and Colin Firth will take the lead roles in the forthcoming Coen brothers-scripted remake of Gambit , the classic 1966 British crime caper. The Last Station's Michael Hoffman is taking the director's chair for the project, which will be Firth's first new appointment since his flurry of awards for playing King George VI in Oscars favourite The King's Speech. The original saw Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine as two criminals involved in an elaborate plot to steal a priceless antiquity from millionaire Mr Shahbandar, played by Herbert Lom. It is notable for its reverse-order storyline. In the remake, Firth will play a London art curator who plans to con a wealthy collector into buying a phoney Monet painting. He asks a Texas steer roper, played by Diaz, to pose as a woman whose grandfather liberated the painting at the end of the second world war. In an interview in 2008, Firth denied being involved in the project, but said: "The Coen brothers have written an absolutely brilliant script." Producer Mike Lobell has spent the better part of a decade trying to get the project off the ground. It will finally shoot in London in May.