Antonio Banderas to play Pablo Picasso in ’33 Days’

Antonio Banderas will play Pablo Picasso in Carlos Saura‘s upcoming “33 Dias (33 Days),” about the painter’s emotional turmoil as he worked on masterpiece “Guernica.”

“33 Dias” refers to the time Picasso spent on the mural, which captured his reaction to the destruction of Basque town of Guernica in 1937 by the Nazi Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War.

“[Picasso] is a character that has pursued me for a long time and I always rejected,” said Banderas. “He deserves a lot of respect because I am from Malaga, and I was born four blocks from where he was born.”

The French and Spanish language film will begin shooting next summer in Paris and Guernica. The budget is set around $8 million.