Ralph Fiennes is set to headline writer/director Jacob Aaron Estes' "The Gifted," based on Ian Parker's New Yorker article reports Production Weekly.

The story follows the life of controversial philanthropist Zell Kravinsky who made 45 million dollars in real estate and over the past six years has given it all away, short of only a modest house for himself. Production begins in New York this Spring.

Fiennes is also set to make his screen directorial debut on "Snow Country," based on the Japanese novel "Yukiguni" by Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata.

Adapted by Nicholas Rohl, the north Canadian-set love story chronicles the affair between a wealthy sophisticate and a convent-raised 17-year-old Inuit girl who gives herself to him without illusions or regrets, knowing their passion cannot last.

Production is slated to begin September with locations in Toronto, Winnipeg and in the Arctic.