Michael Fassbender in talks for Trespass Against Us

UK director Adam Smith is due to make his feature debut on Trespass Against Us, a gangster film written by Alastair Siddons, who will also produce with Gail Egan and Andrea Calderwood of Potboiler Productions.

Michael Fassbender is in negotiations to star in the lead role of Chad Cutler, an outlaw looking to escape his life of crime.

Protagonist Pictures will begin pre-selling the film at the AFM next week.

It was developed by and is being co-financed by Film4, and is scheduled to shoot in the UK in 2014.

Music for the film will come from The Chemical Brothers who will write and perform the original score.

Smith has made his name directing music-related films such as The Chemical Brothers’ Don’t Think and promos for The Streets (Blinded by The Light, The Irony Of It All), as well as TV episodes of Doctor Who, Little Dorrit and Skins.

Trespass Against Us is set across three generations of the rowdy Cutler family, who live as outlaws - hunting hares, ram-raiding stately homes and taunting the police. The family have always lived this way but, defying the expectations of his father, Chad Cutler is looking for a way out of the criminal life.

London-based Potboiler’s recent credits include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, Biyi Bandele’s Half Of A Yellow Sun, and Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos.

Fassbender is currently shooting Slow West for director John Maclean in New Zealand and will take on the leading role in Macbeth for Justin Kurzel in Jan 2014. He is represented by Troika Talent and CAA.