With a cast including Ukrainian star dancer Sergei Polunin, The White Crow focusses on Nureyev’s defection to the US.

British actor Ralph Fiennes is to direct a new biopic about ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev called The White Crow – and among the featured cast is Ukrainian dancer Sergei Polunin.

Fiennes – known for his roles in films such as Schindler’s List, The English Patient and The Grand Budapest Hotel, as well as his many Shakespearean stage performances – is collaborating with British playwright David Hare, who has previously received Academy Award nominations for his screenplays for The Hours and The Reader.

^{Fiennes on set for his first film, Coriolanus}

Hare’s screenplay for The White Crow is based on Julie Kavanagh’s 2007 biography of Nureyev, the legendary Russian ballet dancer who defected to the US in 1961. After performing with many of the world’s top ballet companies, Nureyev was Director of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1983 to 1989, and its chief choreographer until 1992.

The White Crow, which is being developed by BBC Films, will star Russian dancer Oleg Ivenko as Nureyev. In a statement, the film company said that Hare’s script “delivers a tight and thrilling insight into his dangerous defection to the West in 1961 Paris, choreographed by the dancer’s great friend, 21-year-old Parisian Clara Saint.” Saint will be played by French actor Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Colour). The cast also includes Polunin and Russian actor Chulpan Khamatova.

The film shoot will take place in St Petersburg and Paris in the northern summer at locations including the Mariinsky Theatre and the Palais Garnier. In the statement, Fiennes says: “This is a story of an uncompromising spirit, of homeland and ideologies that restrict, and of friendship. It is, equally, a tale about the life and ballet culture he left behind in Russia.”

^{Sergei Polunin as seen in the film Dancer}

The White Crow is just one of three films in which Polunin is currently featured. He also appears in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and the spy thriller Red Sparrow starring Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton, both due for release this year. Polunin took the dance world by storm when he joined the Royal Ballet in 2007, becoming its youngest ever principal in 2010 at age 19. However, two years later he created shockwaves when he walked away, struggling with the weight of expectations and fame ­– all of which is explored in the documentary Dancer.

Speaking to Limelight in November, ahead of the Australian release of Dancer, Polunin talked about his desire to become an actor as well as his ambition to create new dance and ballet works through Project Polunin – which presents its first programme, a triple bill of classical and modern pieces, at Sadler’s Wells from March 14 – 18.