Martin Scorsese talks on stage during his master class on movie making, at the International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 24, 2007.[AP]

Martin Scorsese will direct a documentary film on the late Beatles guitarist George Harrison.

"Harrison's music and his search for spiritual meaning is a story that still resonates today and I'm looking forward to delving deeper," Scorsese said in an e-mailed press release Thursday.

"It would have given George great joy to know that Martin Scorsese has agreed to tell his story," Harrison's widow, Olivia, said.

Scorsese, who won his first Academy Award this year for directing "The Departed," has made other films focusing on music stars, including the 2005 documentary "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" and 1978's "The Last Waltz."

Harrison, born in Liverpool, England, and the youngest of the Beatles, died at 58 in Los Angeles on Nov. 29, 2001, after battling lung cancer and a brain tumor.

(Agencies via Chinadaily.com.cn September 28, 2007)