Queer as Folk star headed for Nicholas Nickleby

Charlie Hunnam, a costar of the original U.K. Queer as Folk who is currently appearing on Fox's Undeclared, has signed to star in a new screen adaptation of Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Douglas McGrath (Emma, Company Man) is slated to write and direct, and Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot), out actor Nathan Lane, and Christopher Plummer will also appear. The book follows Nicholas, a young boy left destitute by his father's death and whose life becomes a series of adventures. A 1981 Broadway adaptation of the novel starred Roger Rees and was staged as an eight-hour show presented in two-night blocks.