Stephen Frears hopes to secure the American Beauty star to play the lead in Lee (Billy Elliot) Hall's script of Sellers' life.

The Sunday Times reported last week that a long list of stars are keen to take the role of the star who died in 1980, including Kevin Kline, Mike Myers as well as Brits Steve Coogan and Ali G's Sacha Baron Cohen.

The film will be a US/UK production and Spacey, who has long harboured a desire to reprise the Inspector Clouseau character from The Pink Panther films, is the most capable and bankable star.

MGM Vice Chairman Chris McGurk told Variety magazine on Monday that a script was "about 80 percent" finished, and that producer Ivan Reitman could begin shooting by the end of the year.

He did admit that Spacey has not yet committed to the role of Clouseau, but that they are "in discussions" with the actor. A spokeswoman for Spacey was not available for comment.