Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson is to play Mary, Queen of Scots in what could become one of the most significant historical films about Scotland since Braveheart.

The epic deal was revealed at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday.

According to production company Relativity Media, the film will see the tragic monarch "battle political enemies, scheming allies and affairs of the heart in her quest to reunite the warring tribes of her native Scotland".

Co-produced by Johansson's mother, Melanie, the script will be penned by Jimmy McGovern, who wrote the gritty television crime drama Cracker which starred Robbie Coltrane. The project has been a long-term labour of love for the Liverpool screenwriter.

Three years ago he wrote a two-part television drama about Mary Stuart, entitled Gunpowder, Treason and Plot, which was directed by Scot Gilles McKinnon and starred French actress Clemence Poesy.

The new feature film version will be directed by John Curran, whose most recent film, The Painted Veil, was based on the W Somerset Maugham novel.

Mary, a Roman Catholic, ruled Scotland from 1542 to 1567, but her alleged designs on the throne of England - ruled by her Protestant cousin, Elizabeth I - led to her downfall and beheading.

Johansson, 22, is one of Hollywood's most sought-after stars. Her films include Lost in Translation, The Girl with a Pearl Earring, Match Point and The Black Dahlia.

Last month, it was revealed that, in her determination to be seen as a serious actor, the curvaceous celebrity has insisted on a no-nudity clause in all her contracts. Johansson is the latest in a long list of actresses to take the role of the tragic monarch who succeeded the throne shortly after her birth, became a wife at 15, was widowed at 17, before being beheaded at 44 after spending years in jail.

Among famous faces to have brought her story to life on the screen is Vanessa Redgrave who starred in the 1971 version, also titled Mary, Queen of Scots. Others who have played her include Vivian Pickles, Katharine Hepburn and Dame Janet Baker, who took the lead in the late-1990s in Gaetano Donizetti's opera of her life.

In a television historical drama, Elizabeth I, two years ago, which starred Helen Mirren, Barbara Flynn took the role of Elizabeth's arch rival.

More recently, Siobhan Redmond, the Scots actress, starred in a play about Mary who succeeded her father, James V, when she was just one week old. At six years old, she was sent to France. She married the future Francis II of France in 1558.

When he died in 1560 she returned to Scotland, where, as a Catholic, she came into conflict with Protestant reformers. Her marriage to Henry Stuart (Lord Darnley) was also resented and soon broke down. Following the murder of Lord Darnley in 1567, she married Lord Bothwell, possibly her husband's murderer, which alienated remaining supporters.

Following a rebellion of Scottish nobles, she was imprisoned and forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son, James VI.

Although she escaped and raised an army, it was defeated at Langside in 1568, and Mary fled to England. She was kept in captivity, but it was thought she became involved in Spanish plots against Elizabeth I and was executed.