Ola Rapace also stars as boxer Bosse Hogberg.

Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke will direct Swedish award-winning Millennium star Noomi Rapace as legendary Swedish singer Anita Lindblom and her husband actor Ola Rapace as boxer Bosse Högberg, in a yet untitled biopic depicting the couple’s whirlwind romance in the 1960s.

Lindblom, whose chart-topper 1961 Sån’t är livet – a Swedish cover version of Roy Hamilton’s You Can Have Her – has been named Swedish Hit of the 20th Century. She was top of the pops when she met Högberg, a Swedish and European boxer champion, and their turbulent affair and subsequent marriage fed the scandal pages of the local tabloids for years. He died in 2005, while she is now in her 70s, living in France.

”I immediately fell in love with the script – it throws us back into Swedish celebrity culture of the 1960s, where the name is more important than the person,” explains Hardwicke. ”And it is inspired by a true story – about the wild, charismatic boxer Bosse Högberg and the glamorous pop diva Anita Lindblom, who shared an insatiable thirst of fame. Ola Rapace has trained boxing for four years to be fit for the role”

Bosse & Anita has been a dream project since we started developing the script with Peter Birro several years ago – and now with the Rapaces and Hardwicke on board,” added producer Helena Danielsson, of Hepp Film, who is preparing shooting start for the autumn. Most recently Danielsson produced Pernilla August’s Beyond (Svinalängorna), also with Noomi and Ola Rapace in the cast.

Her producers’ team for Lindberg-Högberg includes Hepp Film colleague Maria Dahlin, and Malte Forsell, of Garagefilm International, in collaboration with Nordisk Film (Lone Korslund), and Paradox Entertainment (Fredrik Malmberg, Gudrun Giddings).

Nordisk Film will handle Scandinavian distribution and has scheduled the release for the winter of 2012.