According to Variety, Fox Searchlight has set Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett to star in Notes From a Scandal, a Patrick Marber-scripted adaptation of the Zoe Heller novel.

Richard Eyre will direct the film, with shooting to begin Aug. 13. Scott Rudin and Robert Fox will produce.

Blanchett will play Sheba Hart, a free-spirited and charismatic art teacher brought down by scandal when she is arrested for engaging in sexual relations with a 15-year-old student. Dench will play Barbara Covett, a fellow teacher who befriends the younger woman and observes her fall from grace.

Blanchett, who's coming off an Oscar-winning performance in The Aviator, is co-starring with Brad Pitt and Gael Garcia Bernal in Babel, for Paramount.