Scott Haze leads cast of The Prince

Scott Haze is to lead the cast of the Hunter Biden-inspired film 'The Prince'.

The 40-year-old actor heads Cameron Van Hoy's movie and is joined by stars including Nicolas Cage, J.K. Simmons, Giancarlo Esposito and Andy Garcia.

The film tells the story of an addict's odyssey through the world of power, pleasure and pain on his transformative journey towards recovery.

Sources say that Haze's character is partly based on Hunter Biden - the son of US president Joe Biden whose abuse of drugs and alcohol is well known and who was found guilty earlier this week in a Delaware trial on three felony counts relating to the purchase of a gun in 2018.

Screenwriter David Mamet had alluded to the project in an interview with podcaster Andrew Klavan recently.

He said: "These guys who did 'Sound of Freedom', they came to me and they said, 'You want to write a movie for us?' I said, 'Yeah, sure, what do you got?' They said they wanted to do a movie about Hunter Biden."

Insiders close to the film have denied that the picture is based on Biden.

They said: "This project has been in the works for a while and, as it currently stands and is led by Van Hoy, is a fictional account of fictional events and characters."

In a statement to Deadline, the director said: "It's amazing to work with David Mamet on this wildly original screenplay.

"Collaborating with him, Academy Award winners Nicolas Cage and J.K. Simmons, along with Giancarlo Esposito, Andy Garcia, and my dear friend and collaborator Scott Haze, is a dream."