July 19, 2010 15:04

Angelina Jolie and Catherine Zeta Jones battling for Elizabeth Taylor role

A-list actresses want to play Hollywood legend in biopic

Oscar-winning actresses Angelina Jolie and Catherine Zeta Jones are competing for the role Elizabeth Taylor in a new biopic of her life. The film will be based on a new book, Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century, reports The Daily Telegraph.

The authors of the book, Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, were given access to a series of love letters sent by Taylor and her on-off husband Richard Burton during their two stormy marriages, as well as an unpublished first draft of Taylor's 1965 autobiography.

Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols, who worked with Taylor and Burton on the 1966 film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - for which Taylor won a Best Actress Oscar - reportedly wants to make the film.

Possible contenders for the role of Burton include Russell Crowe, Clive Owen and Colin Farrell.

Taylor, now 78, was a successful child star who went on to marry six times and become one of Hollywood's most profitable leading ladies.

She was the first female movie star to earn a salary of £1 million per movie.