Clive Owen and George Clooney as Con Artists

According to The Guardian, George Clooney and Clive Owen are set to star as John Drewe and John Myatt, who for seven years got together to con art experts and some of the world's most prominent private collectors. The duo, forged masterpieces and are said to have earned about $3.7 million executing these art crimes, before being sent to prison in 1998.

British screenwriters Ian Clement and Dick La Frenais have been first approached to write the screenplay several years ago by Michael Douglas, but were tied up on other projects. Douglas had been attracted by the scale of what is often dubbed "the biggest art fraud of the 20th century." The unmade Douglas film, with the working title "Art Con," attracted much publicity and was to have starred the actor in a leading role, but the production deal was never closed. Now, producers Jay Weston and Fred Levinson are trying to get the project off the ground.

"The film will be set in London and they [writers] have come up with something that is a thrilling combination of The Thomas Crown Affair and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," said Weston.