Oscar winner Colin Firth will play gay playwright, actor and composer Noël Coward and the best friend and confidant of Oscar Wilde in forthcoming biopics.

In details announced at the Cannes Film Festival, the King's Speech actor is due to star as Oscar Wilde's gay friend Reginald 'Reggie' Turner in the upcoming Oscar Wilde biopic, This Happy Prince.

Firth will star alongside out actor Rupert Everett who will play the gay Irish poet and playwright in his directorial debut which will commence shooting in 2013.   

In Mad Dogs And Englishmen, Firth will star as another gay artistic hero, Noël Coward. The film tells the story of the actor's two-week residency at The Desert Inn resort, Las Vegas in 1955.

Coward’s cabaret performance proved such a huge success that it drew audience members that included the biggest names in Hollywood such as, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart.

Nicknamed The Master, Coward dominated the London and American stage during the late 1920s, 30s and 40s.

With his distinctive elegant appearance and flamboyant wit, he wrote many hit shows that included Private Lives, Design for Living, Blithe Spirit and Tonight at 8:30.

As a composer he wrote I’ll See You Again, London Pride, Nina and Mad About the Boy.

The success of Coward’s Desert Inn cabaret helped to revive his career that was in decline after the Second World War.

Noël Coward did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, but it was discussed candidly after his death by biographers including his long-time partner Graham Payn, and in Coward's published diaries and letters.

The title of the film comes from one of Coward’s most famous songs, which he performed in the show.

The film is being made by BiteSize Entertainment, a newly-formed production company. There is no start date for the project as yet, which is currently selecting a director.

Watch Noël Coward performing Nina in 1957 on American TV here: