He just can’t stop working, Daniel Radcliffe. The Harry Potter actor has signed on to play Sebastian Coe – the hero of British athelitics – in a new biopic, according to Screen Daily.

Harry PotterDaniel Radcliffe
Then and now: Radcliffe in Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets, and now, in Kill Your Darlings

The four-time Olympic gold medallist’s stock was increased to ‘vogue status’ with the unrivalled success that was the London Olympics. The prevalence of athletes like Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah shot athletics back into a societal zeitgeist.

So, then, what better time to announce a film about one of the U.K’s most successful athletes? Coe was instrumental in ensuring the Olympics landed in London in 2012, and was presented with the Lifetime Achievement award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in last December.

The film, written by Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy and Will Davies, tells the story of Coe’s famous rivalry with fellow Olympian Steve Ovett, though it isn’t known who will play the latter.

"I hadn't realised how good it was until you dig into their past," said Beaufoy. "They were fantastically different athletes and different people. And they rarely met... apart from on the track - but not very often, even on the track," he added. (BBC)

Shooting for the project, which has been entitled Gold, is currently being planned, with Russian and U.K locations set to provide a backdrop in April of next year.

"Compelling, funny and moving, Gold is a gem of a story," said BBC Films' Christine Langan, who is also serving as executive producer.

Radcliffe has recently been lauded for his role as Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings, the dramatic adaption of a generation of beat poets at Columbia university in 1944, drawn together by a murder investigation.

Seb CoeNational hero - Lord Sebastian Coe