Olympic greatness awaits for Daniel Radcliffe. Well not quite, but the next best thing: he’ll be playing British athletics legend in an upcoming biopic. Since his days as the potentially type-casting role of Harry Potter, the Fulham-born actor has made a concerted effort to shy away from teen roles, focussing on more dramatic turns.

Allen Ginsburg
Radcliffe in Kill Your Darlings

And in fairness to the young actor, he’s certainly achieved a shift in perception. No longer is he simply recognized as the young magician that launched his career into stratospheric heights. Now, he demands a new kind of respect, no doubt in part to his work on Kill Your Darlings, which sees him play Allen Ginsburg. He apparently began dating one of his co-stars.

The Woman in Black, too, furthered Radcliffe stance as a serious actor, not to mention his theatre work, with How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and The Cripple of Inishmaan.

But his roles have erred on the indie, assuring a small demographic of his capabilities. Something Radcliffe will be changing soon with his role as Coe.

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

The decorated athlete was instrumental in getting the Olympics to London in 2012, and with his history as one of the most successful sports stars Great Britain has ever seen, Radcliffe will certainly garner attention with this role, pushing him even further into the mature mainstream conscious.

The movie, entitled Gold, has a synopsis:

"Sebastian Coe (Daniel Radcliffe), obsessive and nurtured, is a quiet loner driven to the limit of endeavour by his ambitious father. Steve Ovett, effortless and natural, is a confident joker and outsider, fighting to prove himself in an elitist world. Both are fuelled by rivalry but burdened by the weight of expectation and fear of failure. Lovers, family loyalties and the human spirit are tested to breaking point in a relentless race for glory. Inspired by a crescendo of real-life events – a movie about winning, losing and the pursuit of immortality."

Slumdog Millionaire's Oscar-winning writer Simon Beaufoy has written the screenplay with How to Train Your Dragon's Will Davies. "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)

Sebastian CoeSebastian Coe will see his story hit theatres