Dennis Hopper to play Frank Sinatra

Dennis Hopper is to play Frank Sinatra in a new movie set in Australia.

He has been chosen for the role in The Night We Called It A Day, which charts the singer's life on tour.

Melanie Griffith will appear as one of Sinatra's girlfriends Barbara Max while David Hemmings will play his lawyer.

The film, which also stars Ally McBeal actress Portia de Rossi, goes into production in Sydney next month.

It centres around Australian actor Joel Edgerton, who plays a promoter who pulls off a coup when he persuades Sinatra to tour Australia in 1974.

But when Sinatra clashes with the press and unions, the promoter's big plans go badly wrong, reports Screen Daily.