Marjane Satrapi has signed on to direct historical drama Radioactive. Based on the 2010 graphic novel Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, written by Lauren Redniss, the film will center on the relationships of Marie Curie with her husband, Pierre Curie, and her student/lover Paul Langevin at the turn of the 20th century. The film’s screenplay will be written by Jack Thorne, who recently penned the West End stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Radioactive will be produced by Working Title Pictures and Shoebox Films.

Working Title co-chairman Tim Bevan said the following of the project:

Marie Curie was one of the great female scientists of the 20th century. Between the originality of Laura Redniss’ book, the freshness of Jack Thorne’s script, and the visual imagination of Marjane Satrapi’s direction, I think we have the opportunity of making a very original movie about her life’s work and its consequences.

The film is currently in the process of casting the three lead roles.

Satrapi, an French-Iranian artist/writer/filmmaker, is a graphic novelist herself, making her an ideal choice to adapt Lauren Redniss’ work. Over a decade ago, she adapted her own award-winning autobiographical graphic novel, Persepolis, into an animated feature film. Persepolis premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and tied for the Jury Prize, and later was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, making Satrapi the first female director nominated for the award.