Becker International haspicked up worldwide rights to Angela Workman's Bronte, which is set to star Oscar-nominated actress MichelleWilliams (Brokeback Mountain).

Williams will play the titlecharacter of Charlotte Bronte, who defied class and gender to write suchclassic novels as Jane Eyre. The castalso includes Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Imelda Staunton, Brian Cox and Ben Chaplin.

Workman, a theatre actor,will direct from her own script. The film, which starts production later thisyear, is being produced by UK-based AMC Pictures' Alistair MacLean-Clark and BasilStephens.

Becker announced earlierthis week that UK-based Iain Canning, who has been part of the Becker salesefforts for about eight months and acquires films for Dendy, is to set up andmanage a London office.

Becker Internationalpresident Reiko Bradley told Screendaily.coma month ago that she was relocating back to the US from Sydney to run the sales company but the connection nowappears to be severed with the Sydney office managed by existing staffer Jonathan Page.

Becker will introduce Bronte to buyers at Cannes. Others titleson the company's Cannes slate include Control,directed by Anton Corbjin and starring Samantha Morton, the French film Birds Of Heaven, directed by Eliane deLatour, and Opal Dream which is to bereleased by Focus in the US.