MADRID (Hollywood Reporter) – Oscar winner Javier Bardem, hot off Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," will star in the drama "Biutiful," playing a man searching for balance and his children's safety after a broken love affair.

The film's director, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, will start shooting next week in Barcelona. It marks his first project without his regular scriptwriter, Guillermo Arriaga. The director wrote the Spanish-language "Biutiful" script with Armando Bo and Nicolas Giacobone.

Arriaga and Gonzalez Inarritu made waves with their first hit, "Amores Perros," in 2000 and then followed up with English-language hits "21 Grams" and "Babel" to form a much-acclaimed trilogy.

Bardem won an Oscar this year for his supporting role in "No Country For Old Men."

Source: REUTERS