Eddie Izzard is to star opposite Bono in a new film based on the songs of the Beatles.

The comic plays Mr Kite in the movie Across the Universe, now in production in New York.

It  has been written by sitcom veterans Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the duo behind Porridge, The Likely Lads and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

It is a romantic musical, told mainly through Beatles songs, in which a young man from Liverpool comes to America during the Vietnam War to find his father, ending up in Greenwich Village.

The film is directed by Julie Taymor, who was previously responsible for the London and Broadway stage versions of The Lion King.