Emperor Hadrian was a lover of beauty, a military hero and a bisexual man with the most complicated personal life, as thousands of visitors to the British Museum are discovering.

Now the British film-maker John Boorman is hunting for an actor capable of conveying both brute and aesthete in a new film with a budget of more than £25 million.

The 75-year-old director of films including Deliverance, Point Blank and Excalibur admitted it would be tricky to find a big name to head the cast. He said: "Hadrian was such an extraordinary man, it's very difficult to match him up with an actor. I need someone to take this adventure on."

The aim is to find an A-list star, although Boorman has ruled out Antonio Banderas, a name associated with the part some years ago. Filming is scheduled for Morocco, Rome and Spain in the spring.

The movie is being produced by Patrick Meehan of HandMade Films in Mayfair - the company behind The Life Of Brian and Withnail

And I - with Italian producer Enzo Peri of Olympus Films.

It is based on a 1951 novel, Memoirs Of Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar. Mr Peri bought the rights in 1998 before persuading Boorman to direct about five years ago.

"I describe it as an intimate epic," said Boorman, who lives in Ireland.

The film-makers discovered two years ago that the British Museum was planning the current exhibition, and they all attended the official opening on Wednesday night.

"It was wonderful to see all these statues and they presented it rather well," said Boorman. "It would have been lovely if we had had the film out but they beat us to it." Hadrian is slated for release in 2010.

Meehan said the film would be an "international epic" in the same mould as sword-and-sandal blockbusters Gladiator and Troy.

Boorman added: "We need a big audience because we need a big budget."

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