Robert Lantos as producer of “In the Skin of a Lion”, Tom Hopper as director

Robert Lantos, the veteran Canadian producer of David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, will produce a film adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion, starring Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) on board Direct. Simon Beaufoy, the Oscar-winning author of “Slumdog Millionaire,” wrote the adaptation.

The film was jointly developed by Toronto-based Serendipity Point Films by Lantos and Film4. Amazon Studios has joined the project. The casting is in progress.

Set in 1920s and 1930s Toronto, “In the Skin of a Lion” weaves romance, mystery and adventure through the story of Patrick Lewis, who arrives in Toronto and makes a living searching for a missing millionaire. His life intersects with the orphan girl Hana and the thief Caravaggio, who reappear in The English Patient, Ondaatje’s award-winning novel, which was adapted into Anthony Minghella’s Oscar-winning film starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes.

“Like ‘Crimes of the Future’, ‘In the Skin of a Lion’ is a project I’ve been developing for 20 years since I read Ondaatje’s great book,” said Lantos, adding that the film will be “very ambitious and of epic magnitude.”

“It’s a big story about class struggle, class conflict and romance, set 100 years ago,” said the producer, who bought the rights to the book in the 1990s and has worked with several writers over the years. “The book is difficult to adapt and Michael Ondaatje chose Simon Beaufoy to reinvent the story in cinematic language,” Lantos said.

Lantos will also be collaborating again with Cronenberg on a film adaptation of his 2014 book Consumed. Also adding to Serendipity Point Films’ optimistic list is Rise of the Raven, a 10-hour series about the Battle of Belgrade in 1456.