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Columbia Pictures and director Michael Mann will team to tell the story of renowned war photographer Robert Capa, using the snapshot of a torrid two-year romance with Gerda Taro during the Spanish Civil War.

The studio has acquired “Waiting for Robert Capa,” a Spanish language novel by Susana Fortes, and set Jez Butterworth to adapt it.

Mann will produce through his Forward Pass banner. He will also direct.

The story begins in Paris in 1935, where Capa, a refugee from Fascist Hungary, met Taro, a refugee from Nazi Germany, met with the intention to become photographers. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War one year later began Capa’s emergence as the most renowned war photographer ever, and established Taro as the first frontline female battle photographer.

Mann, who last directed “Ali” and produced “Hancock” for Columbia, had long wanted to find a way to make a film about Capa and found his way in through the Fortes novel.

Some 4300 photos taken mostly by Capa and Taro during the Spanish Civil War were recently discovered, and the images will be the subject of a show to be held at the Institute of Contemporary Photography next year.

Mann, who last directed the Johnny Depp-starrer “Public Enemies” for Universal Pictures, intends to make a gritty, low budget film. He chose Butterworth based on his play “Jerusalem,” and for a James Brown biopic that Butterworth wrote with brother John-Henry Butterworth. The writers also teamed on the script for “Fair Game,” the Doug Liman-directed adaptation of Valerie Plame memoir which stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.

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