Scott taking gentle approach to film

Director Ridley Scott is tackling softer themes with a film version of Peter Mayle's gentle novel A Good Year about a would-be winemaker in Provence.

The British filmmaker is in negotiations with actor Russell Crowe to star in the production. He would play an investment banker who loses his job and moves to Provence to take over a failing vineyard owned by his late uncle, a move that is complicated by the arrival of an unknown American cousin.

Mayle's novel continues the theme that made him world famous with the success of A Year in Provence.