Aussie Bruce Beresford will direct a movie about the one person we're all really hankering to know better: Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. No, this is not a joke. Apparently Beresford is a big fan of classical music (his Bride of the Wind, while not about the composer, featured Gustav Mahler is a central role), and the Rachmaninoff pic - entitled Rhapsody - is doubly appealing because it's "a love story first and foremost, with political upheaval and a large canvas in the spirit of Doctor Zhivago." (Did you just say Doctor Zhivago? I'm so there.)

Talks are underway between American producers Prelude Features and an unnamed Russian film company with the goal of having the film in production (in Russia, of course) by the end of the year. Additional talks have taken place with EMI, which agreed to allow the composer's music to be used in Rhapsody, thus sparing us vaguely Rachmaninoff-esque themes.

I'm sorry, I sort of missed that last paragraph because I was still thinking about Omar Sharif. Hell - a sweeping, romantic epic, set in revolutionary Russia? Um, ok. Please. But I can't believe I'm actually excited about a Russian composer movie.