Ron Fricke hassigned on to direct Becoming Buddha, a dramatic narrative account of Buddha's spiritual journey thatis set to begin shooting later this year in Cambodia, Thailand and parts ofIndia.

Tinker Lindsay and Peter Russell, are assembling theproject through their Pippala Productions banner, with the VisioneeringGroup/Awakened Media serving as co-producers.

Lindsay andRussell co-wrote the screenplay, which Lindsay told screendaily.com was auniversal story of personal transformation and " a hero's journey into thehuman mind".

Fricke wouldappear to be a smart choice for the project, having worked on the spiritual andvisually lush Barakaand Chronos asdirector and Koyaanisqatsi as cinematographer.

Interestingly, he attempted to put together a projectabout the life of Siddhartha with the late screenwriter Robert Bolt in theearly 1990s, which eventually fell through.

Awakened Mediais a new company formed by The Visioneering Group in association with Gaiam, aleading US retailer of home media and lifestyle products.