Making its firstcommitment to a British film since Ed Pressman and John Schmidt's Contentfilmtook over the UK's Winchester Entertainment, sales arm Content Internationalhas boarded Burns, with Gerard Butlerstarring hot off Joel Schumacher's PhantomOf The Opera.

Brian Cox, JohnHannah, David O'Hara and James Cosmo are also starring in the story of 18thcentury Scottish literary hero Robert Burns, which tells how Burns' endlesscarousing and womanizing shocks the polite Edinburgh society that first welcomedhim.

Vadim Jean, whoseJiminy Glick In Lalawood opens in theUS this year through Gold Circle Films, is to direct from a script by Rob Roy's Alan Sharp.

"It's aScottish actor's dream to play Rabbie Burns," said Butler, using the writer'sScottish nickname. "Alan Sharp's script is fantastic, perfectly capturing theemotional, physical and intellectual intensity of the writer."

Andrew Boswelland Jolyon Symonds will produce Burns,which is based at The Mob Film Company.

Jamie Carmichael,managing director of Content International, called the project "a fabulouslysexy story about a well-known British Icon."