Fassbender will portray writer Thomas Wolfe while Firth is to appear as the editor Max Perkins – who looked over the work of writers including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe – in a film  based on A. Scott Berg’s biography Max Perkins: Editor of Genius.

The film will follow Perkins work at the publishing house of Charles Scribner’s Sons in New York, whom he joined in 1910 after a stint working at The New York Times.

While there, he sought out and published Fitzgerald’s first novel This Side of Paradise and Hemingway’s first major work The Sun Also Rises.

The former Artistic Director of London’s Donmar Warehouse and Sheffield Theatres, Grandage will direct from a script adapted by screenwriter John Logan, whose most recent credit is the latest James Bond film Skyfall.

Genius will be produced by James Bierman for Grandage’s new venture Michael Grandage Co. Bierman served as the executive producer at Donmar and formed the company with Grandage.

Glen Basner of FilmNation – who are shopping the project to studios at the American Film Market – said: “Genius promises to be a beautifully performed, electrifying and deeply moving film.

“With such a strong creative team led by Michael Grandage, John Logan and James Bierman and with Firth and Fassbender on board, who are undoubtedly two of the finest screen actors working today, we can’t wait to introduce the film to buyers at the AFM [American Film Market].”

Colin can next be seen in The Railway Man opposite Nicole Kidman, while Fassbender has several projects in the pipeline, including Ridley Scott’s The Counselor and Lynne Ramsay’s Jane Got a Gun.