AceShowbiz -

Also known as a prolific stage actor, Patrick Stewart is now setting his eyes to develop a new big screen version of William Shakespeare's famous play "The Merchant of Venice", the man himself has revealed to The Argus.

Intended to be a modern take of the drama, the project will be set in Las Vegas in the 20th century with its script being penned by John Logan, known for his writing works in a number of Hollywood hits like "The Last Samurai" and "The Aviator." It is learned that the idea came out of an argument the two had after Logan described it as a "loathsome play".

"I spent half an hour arguing the contrary," the actor recalled. "He said, Would you like it if I started working on a screen project for nothing?' He earns about $2 million a project, so I thought it was a decent offer."

Further, he added, "It is a startling way of doing the play; it is about money and sex and love and corruption."

Stewart, best known for his performance as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in sci-fi series "Star Trek: The Next Generation", recently provided the voice of Max Winters in Kevin Munroe's CGI animated "TMNT." His film credits include "Jeffrey", "Conspiracy Theory", "Star Trek: Nemesis", and the "X-Men" series.