Getty Images"American Psycho" writer/director Mary Harron has signed on to direct "The Anna Nicole Story," about ill-fated Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith, a representative of Harron's told TheWrap.
Harron, who most recently directed the 2011 Irish-Canadian horror film "The Moth Diaries," also co-wrote and helmed the 2005 biopic "The Notorious Bettie Page," so she has some experience in documenting the lives of pin-up models.
In addition to Harron signing on, Martin Landau has been cast as oil executive J, Howard Marshall, who married Smith just before his death in a union that would spark a bitter inheritance feud between Smith and Marshall's family.
Landau's spokesman told TheWrap that Landau is "very excited" to play Marshall, particularly after learning more about Marshall's background.
"He's found that Marshall was quite a talented man, that he was a key advisor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harold Ickes during WWII and was a sharp intellect with a distinguished business career," the spokesman said.
Smith died in 2007 at the age of 39, of combined drug intoxication.
Smith has been the subject of a biographical film before, in the form of 2009's "The Anna Nicole Smith Story," which was released on DVD and starred Willa Ford as the model-turned-tragic reality TV star.
Deadline first reported the news of Harron and Landau signing on for "The Anna Nicole Story."
