Firth and Diaz in Coens' 'Gambit' redo

Golden Globe winner and Oscar frontrunner Colin Firth ( The King's Speech) will be joined by Cameron Diaz ( The Green Hornet) to star in Gambit, a remake of the 1966 caper, co-written by the Coen brothers.

The original film, starring Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine, followed a London art curator scheming to trick a wealthy collector into buying a fake Monet painting. He recruits a Texas steer roper - to be played by Diaz - as part of the scam.

Joel and Ethan Coen, Oscar nominees for True Grit, will not direct their screenplay. Michael Hoffman ( The Last Station) is set to helm the production starting to shoot in May in London.

Diaz, who is currently in theaters with The Green Hornet, will star in Bad Teacher with Justin Timberlake ( The Social Network) and Jason Segel (the upcoming Muppets movie), due out June 24.

Firth will next be seen in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the adaptation of the John le Carré novel starring Gary Oldman as the retired British spy George Smiley, and The Promised Land with director Michael Winterbottom ( A Mighty Heart).

RC