Shanley, an Academy Award winner for his screenplay to "Moonstruck," will write the screenplay and direct "Doubt," for producers Scott Rudin and Miramax.

Filming is expected for fall 2007. The play about a Bronx Catholic school nun who suspects a priest of wrongdoing was a sensation from its 2004 start at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage I Off-Broadway. Doubt moved to Broadway in 2005, snagged the Tony Award for Best Play (as well as two performance awards and one for direction) and played 525 performances before closing in July 2006.

Doubt, directed by Doug Hughes, is currently on a national tour featuring its Tony-winning star, Cherry Jones.

Casting for the film has not been announced.

Variety reported that the film cast will be expanded to include others in the Bronx school community, including the young black student who is the center of the play's controversial accusations. The play is set in 1964. Location shooting in New York City is expected.

The stage roles were created by Cherry Jones as Sister Aloysius, Heather Goldenhersh as the young Sister James, Brian O'Byrne as Father Flynn and Adriane Lenox as Mrs. Muller, the boy's mother. Lenox won the Best Featured Actress Tony Award for the part.