Tommy Lee Jones will adapt, direct, produce and star in a $30 million film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's posthumously published 1970 novel "Islands in the Stream" says The Hollywood Reporter.

"Islands" centers on the various life stages of a reclusive male painter named Thomas Hudson before, during and after World War II after he moves to the Bahamas.

Like many Hemingway characters, Hudson, who in the tale has a stint working for the U.S. Navy and also endures a series of family tragedies, leads a complicated emotional life that he hides behind a stony exterior.

When he was alive, the author turned a piece of the novel into his famous novella "The Old Man and the Sea".

Jones co-wrote the script with Bill Witliff ("The Perfect Storm"). Morgan Freeman and John Goodman also are in discussions to join the pic.

This marks Jones' second directorial effort after the acclaimed "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada". Shooting is scheduled to begin next March in Puerto Rico.