Los Angeles, Nov 4 (IANS): Oscar-winning director James Marsh, who was last in the news for his Stephen Hawking biopic "The Theory of Everything", will now helm "Dance First", which recreates the life and times of Irish playwright, novelist and Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett, who has been immortalised by his 1953 play, 'Waiting for Godot'.

Gabriel Byrne, also an Irishman, will play the title role in the film. A multiple Tony-winning theatre actor, he has most memorably appeared in such acclaimed films as "The Usual Suspects", "Stigmata", and "End of Days", and also produced the Oscar-nominated 'In the Name of the Father'.

The film's title draws from Beckett's famous aphorism on life "Dance first, think later". Reporting about the film-in-the-making, 'Variety' notes that it is "a playful and often poignant account of the life of this icon of 20th-century literature".

In 1969, after having been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, an embarrassed Beckett, who was forever wracked by self-doubt, simply wanted to be rid of it. "This film revolves around this turning point, the internal debate raging within Beckett as to which of the people in his life most deserve to be the beneficiaries of his shame," writes 'Variety'.