Spanish outfit Morena Films is set to produce a film called Scorpion In Love (Alacran Enamorado), based on Spanish actor Carlos Bardem’s hard-hitting redemption novel.

The book Alacran Enamorado is billed as a “contemporary Romeo & Juliet Story” about a young skin head named Julian (also known as The Scorpion) who mixes with the wrong crowd and gets into trouble, but finds redemption through boxing and falls in love with a young Latin American girl from a troubled background.

Spanish film-maker Santiago Zannou will take on directing duties and is currently writing the adapted script with respected Argentinian scriptwriter Marcelo Figueras (The Widows Of Thursday’s). Zannou enjoyed success with his debut feature The One-handed Trick about a couple of immigrants living in a housing project who decide to set up a rap studio, which picked up three Goya awards last year.

“Alacran Enamorado is a 100% Morena Films project, which will shoot in Spain with a top level Spanish and Latin American cast, including a small role for Carlos Bardem himself,” Alvaro Longoria told ScreenDaily. “[However] we are definitely open to working with Latin American producers as it would be a perfect fit for a co-production with that territory.”

Morena Films worked with Carlos Bardem on their hugely successful prison drama Cell 211, which took more than $10m in Spain and is being remade in the US.

Morena also has several other projects on its slate, such as Daniel Calparsoro’s The Cold, about a group of friends who confront their war torn past on a hunting trip, which is being co-produced with Heather Rae (Frozen River); the portmanteau film 7 Days In Havana from well-known directors including Julio Medem, Laurent Cantet and Gaspar Noe; and Julio Medem’s 5th century historical drama Pericles and Aspacia, about the relationship between the Greek statesman and the alleged courtesan.

“Medem is currently writing a book about the life of Aspacia, and then once that is done we will make a film about it,” said Longoria.