Playwright David Mamet to pen Anne Frank film

Screenwriter and playright David Mamet poses with his Screen Laurel Award at the 57th annual Writers Guild Awards in Los Angeles February 19, 2005.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Playwright David Mamet, whose works often revolve around cutthroat men who use bruising dialogue, will write a screenplay about Holocaust victim Anne Frank, the Walt Disney Co said on Wednesday.

The film will be based on Frank's famous diary, a 1950s U.S. play about Frank by writers Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, and Mamet's own take on the material, Disney officials said.

No date has been set for the film's production or release.

Anne Frank died at age 15 in a German concentration camp during World War Two. Her story became internationally known with the publication of her journal, which described her family's attempt to hide from the Nazis in Amsterdam. "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" was first published in 1947.

Mamet won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1984 play "Glengarry Glen Ross," which featured real estate agents fighting with each other to avoid layoffs. More recently, he created military action drama "The Unit" on the CBS network.

A 1959 movie version of Hackett and Goodrich's play won actress Shelley Winters a best supporting actress Oscar for her role as one of the figures in Frank's diary.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)