Continuing his late-career focus on portrayals of historical figures (most recently Sigmund Freud), Anthony Hopkins is readying himself to play another – this time from the world of music.

The two-time Academy Award winner has been announced as the star of The King of Covent Garden, a biopic of George Frideric Handel set during the period the composer worked on his choral masterpiece Messiah.

Anthony Hopkins: George Frideric Handel

Directed by Andrew Levitas (Minimata) from a screenplay by Tim Slover (based on his 1998 play Joyful Noise), the film is pitched as “a powerfully majestic celebration of genius breaking all the rules to create an anthem inspiring the popular imagination of global audiences,” and scheduled for a late 2025 release.

The Welsh Mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins is named as an executive producer.

Quoted in Variety, Levitas said: “The storytelling is hinged upon an unlikely pair, who meet each other at their lowest points and together create a magnificent never-heard-before ‘sound for the people’: the groundbreaking masterpiece Messiah, the annual global bestseller for close to 300 years.”

“Tim Slover’s writing is populated by passionate, real-life experience in all its color and dirt, creating a riveting human story with surprising contemporary relevancy, universal human connectivity and spiritual uplift.”