Madonna to direct film about Wallis or Wally

(AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ)

Pop diva Madonna plans to head behind the camera again to direct "W.E.," a film may be about King Edward VIII, the British royal who abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.

Madonna is writing the script with Alex Keshishian, who directed Madonna's tour documentary, Truth or Dare, and the late Brittany Murphy in Love and Other Disasters.

The singer's directorial debut was an indie comedy she also wrote, Filth and Wisdom, which made the film festival circuit in 2008 and got a limited run.

Though Hollywood trade Variety reports the film is a biopic, unless something's changed, according to the Internet Movie Data Base, the W.E. story is a romantic comedy looking at the life and loves of a woman named Wally Winthrop.

Film blog, Cinematical.com, confirms this story, claiming the synopsis contains fantasy and flashback scenes in which Wally marries a pediatrician and then falls for a security guard. Perhaps the film is a highly interpretative version of the marriage between the British and American Duke and Duchess of Windsor. But it seems a more likely scenario for Madonna than a historical chronicle.

Vera Farmiga ( Up in the Air) is considering the role of Wally or Wallis. There is no role set for The Material Girl.

RC