class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-43152″ title=”Sam Riley” src=”https://www.heyuguys.com/images/2010/09/Sam-Riley.jpg” alt=”” width=”221″ height=”133″ />The Hollywood Report brings news that Control actor Sam Riley is in talks to play English dramatist and poet Christopher “Kit” Marlowe in the biopic A Dead Man in Deptford, adapted from the Anthony Burgess novel of the same name.

The version of Marlowe’s life (as depicted in the book) also deals with the idea that he balanced the life of a playwright with that of a royal spy for Elizabeth I, and that his premature death (at 29) may have been due to an assassination ordered by the English Secret Service.

Riley, whose next big screen venture is the remake of Brighton Rock (which has its world premiere tonight at the Toronto International Film Festival) is currently working on the long-awaited adaptation of On The Road for The Motorcycle Diaries director Walter Salles.

Production on A Dead Man in Deptford is due to begin around springtime.