Oscar-nominated Australian actor Guy Pearce will reportedly play Rupert Murdoch in a movie about the rise of the media mogul’s tabloid empire.

Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, The Beach) is on board to direct an adaptation of the award-winning play Ink, according to Deadline.

Deadline reported that The Brutalist star Pearce is in talks to play the NewsCorp founder.

The award-winning play’s creator, James Graham, has reportedly adapted the screenplay with plans to shoot this October.

Ink, the play, is set in London in 1969 and follows as Murdoch buys struggling newspaper, The Sun, and tries to turn it into a must-read news source, hiring rogue editor Larry Lamb to run the rag.

Actor Jack O’Connell (Unbroken, Back to Black) is reportedly in negotiations to play Lamb.

In the play, Lamb recruits a ruthless team of reporters who will go to any lengths for a story.

It centres on the birth of the rivalry between The Sun and The Mirror, which gave birth to the British tabloids.

Guy Pearce reportedly could not resist the chance to play Rupert Murdoch. Photo: Getty

Deadline reports that when it came to who would play his two main leads, Pearce and O’Connell were Boyle’s top choices for Murdoch and Lamb from the start.

Pearce recently received critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for The Brutalist, starring alongside Adrian Brody.

He has in the past been nominated for a Golden Globe and BAFTA and won an Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award for various roles.

The Australian had been weighing several offers, but the chance to play one of his country’s most iconic figures ultimately was too hard to pass on, reports Deadline.