Naseer will match wits with Sean Connery The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen gets under way in July

Lata Khubchandani

The verdict is out. Naseeruddin Shah will match his acting skills with Hollywood icon Sean Connery.

The film? Stephen Norrington's The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Confirming the news in Mumbai, Shah's secretary Jairaj said the Monsoon Wedding star had been selected for the Norrington (of Blade) film that goes on the floors July 7.

Connery, famous for his role as James Bond, was last seen in Finding Forrester, with Rob Brown. In The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, he plays a character who leads a literature dream team, including, among others, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll, Jules Verne's Captain Nemo, H G Wells' The Invisible Man, Bram Stokers' Mina Harker and Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray.

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The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen will see Shah share screen space with Monica Bellucci, Jason Flemyng, Richard Roxburgh, Stuart Townsend and Shane West.

Shah was selected over fellow Bollywood actor Gulshan Grover for this role. Grover had earlier expressed his displeasure about Mira Nair and Shekhar Kapur lobbying for Shah. He thought Naseer was a miscast for the role.

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