Exclusive: Matt Smith, best known for playing Doctor Who in that iconic BBC series, is taking on another larger-than-life figure. He has landed the lead role as avant-garde photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in a biopic titled Mapplethorpe in the works from writer-director Ondi Timoner, the two-time Sundance-winning director whose 2015 pic Brand: A Second Coming opened SXSW last year. Girls regular Zosia Mamet has been cast to play Patti Smith, Mapplethorpe’s one-time lover and best friend.

Timoner, who won at Sundance for Dig in 2004 and We Live In Public in 2009, is also producing with Sirad Balducci and Eliza Dushku. The project has the backing of the Mapplethorpe Foundation, and a summer production start is in the works. CAA and UTA co-rep the project.

Mapplethorpe, who died of AIDS in 1989 at 42, is the subject of the HBO documentary Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures, which bowed Friday in the Documentary Premieres section at...