According to The Hollywood Reporter, James Purefoy has signed on to star opposite Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta, an adaptation of a 1980s Alan Moore comic book that Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers are producing for Warner Bros. Pictures.

Set in an alternate future in which Great Britain is a fascist state, a freedom fighter known as V (Purefoy) uses terrorist tactics to fight the oppressive society. He rescues a young woman (Portman) from the secret police, and she becomes his unlikely ally.

Andy and Larry Wachowski wrote the screenplay, which is based on the 10-issue comic book by Moore and illustrator David Lloyd. The miniseries was part of the wave of comics that included Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns and Moore's Watchmen and which heralded a maturing of the genre. James McTeigue, who was the first assistant director on the Wachowskis' Matrix trilogy, is directing.

Filming is scheduled to take place in Berlin beginning in early March for a fall release. Purefoy most recently starred in Vanity Fair opposite Reese Witherspoon.

V for Vendetta was released March 17th, 2006 and stars Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Rupert Graves, Roger Allam. The film is directed by James McTeigue.