De Niro to play Bernie Madoff in movie

Hollywood legend Robert De Niro is to play disgraced financier Bernie Madoff in an HBO movie he will produce, according to reports.

Madoff, the disgraced financier who masterminded a multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme, conned investors out of £41bn. He is currently in prison for fraud.

A number of books - including Laurie Sandell's Truth and Consequences: Life Inside the Madoff Family, and Diane Henrique's best seller, The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust - are understood to have been used to help create the film.

John Burnham Schwartz, author of Reservation Road, will write the film, which is understood to feature De Niro in the lead role.

Madoff was jailed in 2009 after he admitted defrauding investors through a Ponzi scheme which paid out using their money rather than any profits.

He said at the time the scheme had been running since the early 1990s.