ACTOR Patrick Stewart - best- known as Star Trek's Captain Jean-Luc Picard - is turning his hand to comedy.

He is switching from serious roles to take a part in a Merchant Ivory spoof called Remains Of The Piano.

The film will send up some of Britain's most renowned acting talent.

Mirfield-born Stewart will play a character called Obie Ben Kingsley.

Shooting begins in August, with Monty Python star Eric Idle directing.

Billy Connolly and Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush are among other big names to sign up to the comic costume drama.

Lord Of The Rings star Orlando Bloom - who played Legolas - also features.

The cast features a mix of British actors and major Hollywood names. Anjelica Huston and Scream star Neve Campbell will appear alongside Michael York, Tim Curry, Alfred Molina and Idle himself.

Robin Williams is also expected to sign up for a cameo role in the movie, which will be shot in the UK and Canada.

The film is a spoof of Merchant Ivory productions such as Remains Of The Day and A Room With A View.

Rush plays Hopkins, a British aristocrat who returns from India - only to find himself implicated in a murder and forced to become a butler.

It will be Idle's first film as a director since the 1993 comic caper Splitting Heirs.