Award-winning director Mike Leigh is heading back to his home city for his next film - about the 19th century Peterloo massacre of protesters at a democracy rally.
Critics' favourite Leigh, who has been nominated for seven Oscars, will start work in 2017 on the film, which will tell the story of how around a dozen protesters were killed and hundred more injured when cavalry charged a rally demanding parliamentary reform at Manchester's St Peter's Field.
The event - dubbed Peterloo as an ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo which took place four years earlier - will be recreated by Leigh working with long-time collaborators Georgina Lowe and Dick Pope.
He said: "There has never been a feature film about the Peterloo Massacre.
"Apart from the universal political significance of this historic event, the story has a particular personal resonance for me, as a native of Manchester and Salford."
Leigh, whose last film Mr Turner was his biggest box office hit yet, is currently working on a version of The Pirates Of Penzance for the English National Opera, which is due to open next month.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article