Christoph Waltz to star in own directorial debut as wife murderer Albrecht Muth

Waltz hopes to begin shooting The Worst Marriage in Georgetown this October

Christoph Waltz will soon be establishing himself as a director (EPA)

Christoph Waltz is preparing to make his directorial debut on a new crime drama he will also star in.

The Oscar-winning actor is moving behind the camera for The Worst Marriage in Georgetown, based on a New York Times magazine article by journalist Franklin Foer.

Playwright and author David Auburn is writing the script, about the true story of troubled socialite couple Albrecht Muth and Viola Drath.

Muth married Drath in 1991 when he was 26 and she was 70. They threw many lavish parties, but he soon began domestically abusing her and was convicted of first degree murder last year after she was found dead on the bathroom floor.

Muth constructed a web of “lies, fabrications, fraud and deception” about his background and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Waltz will play him in the movie.

Production is scheduled to begin in October, with Voltage Pictures set to sell the film rights at Cannes later this month.

Elsewhere, Waltz will next be seen as villain Franz Oberhauser in upcoming James Bond movie Spectre. He has also been in cast as Captain Rom in Tarzan, due out in 2016.