Warner Bros. has attached Ed Zwick ("The Last Samurai", "The Siege") to direct the period epic "The Lions of Al-Rassan," an adaptation of a Guy Gavriel Kay novel about the collision of religions in Spain during the Middle Ages reports today's Variety.

Warners acquired the book which Vera Blasi ("Woman On Top", "Tortilla Soup") is adapting into a script. The novel is a historical fantasy set at the beginning of the Christian re-conquest of Moorish Spain. A triangle forms between two warrior princes and a female doctor in the fictional locale of Al-Rassan. There are allusions to the Crusades-era religious clashes between Jewish, Catholic and Muslim factions. But the author veils the faiths and introduces magical elements into the historical framework.

"He has done something remarkable in imagining a very compelling world, which has some basis in history, and yet departs in a way that adds a kind of magical realism," Zwick said. "That is a blend I've never seen before and feels like a different way to approach an epic story" says Zwick who looks likely to be working on another project this year, while "The Lions of Al-Rassan" is being written.

Thanks to 'KC'