According to Variety, Hollywood Gang Prods. is poised to bring another historical figure to the bigscreen with Conquistador, an "intimate epic" revolving around 16th century Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes. Pic's budget, said to be north of $40 million, will make it the biggest-budget Spanish-language film ever made.

Brazilian helmer Andrucha Waddington, whose last two pics, "Me You Them" and "House of Sand," were picked up by Sony Pictures Classics, is attached to direct.

Screenplay by Nicholas Kazan ("Reversal of Fortune," Bicentennial Man) was translated by historian-scribe Carlos Bardem, brother of Oscar-nommed Spanish thesp Javier Bardem. No cast has been set.Epic is slated to start principal photography in Brazil and elsewhere in South America in September.

"Conquistador" tracks Cortes as he sails westward from Cuba in 1519 in his quest to expand the Spanish empire and the subsequent destruction of the Aztec empire. "This is the story of landing on the moon and finding out there is a civilization already settled there, when the unknown meets the unknown," said Waddington.