Julie Pacino and Jennifer DeLia’s production company has cast Lily Rabe to play Mary Pickford in its upcoming biopic.

The project is based on Eileen Whitfield’s biography Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood which Josh Fagin is adapting in anticipation of an early 2013 start.

Pacino and DeLia are in Cannes taking meetings on financing and are out to casting with particular focus on the roles of Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlotte Hennessy, Frances Marion and D W Griffith.

The project will explore Pickford’s career as an iconic performer and her role in establishing United Artists. Said Zahraoui is producing.