Tautou to play Coco Chanel in new film

French actress Audrey Tautou has signed up to star as Coco Chanel in a new movie about the fashion legend, it was announced in Cannes today.

The movie, which is expected to begin filming early next year, will focus on Chanel's childhood and early womanhood.

Film-makers are searching for an A-list British actor to play Arthur "Boy" Capel, the wealthy English polo player who played a large part in her life when Chanel was still an unknown, lending her money to buy her first shop.

The woman famed for revolutionising French fashion was born Gabrielle Chanel, the illegitimate daughter of a travelling salesman, in 1883.

She was born into poverty and abandoned by her father after the death of her mother at the age of 33.

Chanel spent seven years in a Catholic orphanage, where she learned to sew and learned the art of millinery while spending holidays with an aunt who had a passion for hats.

Chanel originally wanted to be a singer and only acquired her nickname Coco while singing the song 'Who's Seen Coco in the Trocadero?'.

She began sewing stage clothes for her fellow cabaret performers before she was taken under the wing of Etienne Balsan, an admirer who will be played by a French actor in the film.

Balsan introduced her to Capel.

Chanel went on to dress the likes of Audrey Hepburn and Liz Taylor and is famed for creating what is now known as the classic Chanel suit and the little black dress.

The as yet untitled movie, which has been made especially for 'Dirty Pretty Things' star Tautou, 30, will be directed by French filmmaker Anne Fontaine.