Cate Blanchett to play Lucille Ball in film by Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr

The lead role in a biopic about one of the most loved American TV stars in history has gone to... an Aussie.

Lucille Ball and Cate Blanchett

Cate Blanchett will play American TV icon Lucille Ball in a movie to be produced by Ball’s children.

The film, which will reportedly centre on the life of the I Love Lucy star, will be written by Aaron Sorkin, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Ball was one of television’s most recognisable personalities throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

The film is reported to be produced by Ball’s and former husband Desi Arnaz’s children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr.

It’s not the first time Blanchett will play an American icon in a movie — she appeared as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator and Bob Dylan in I’m Not There.

Sorkin wrote the scripts for The Social Network, Moneyball and the upcoming Steve Jobs movie, which will star Michael Fassbender.

Ball was born in 1911, and originally worked as a model in New York before moving to Hollywood and scoring bit parts in movies for RKO Radio Pictures.

She met Cuban band leader Desi Arnaz in 1940, and the two eloped within a year. Together they created the I Love Lucy TV series, which remains one of the most loved TV shows in US history, running from 1951 to 1960.

Ball herself was a pioneer of female comedy, but had little time for the political significance of her achievements. “Women’s lib? Oh, I’m afraid it doesn’t interest me one bit,” she once said. “I’ve been so liberated it hurts.”

Ball died in 1989, aged 77.