Marc Forster will direct and produce the Civil War drama “The Downslope,” based on an original screenplay written in 1956 by the late filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.

Forster — whose credits include “World War Z,” “Finding Neverland” and “Monsters Ball” — is developing the project as a trilogy and will produce the subsequent features.

Lauren Selig (“Lone Survivor”), Barry Levine (“Oblivion”) and Reneé Wolfe (“All I See Is You”) will be producing with Forster. Selig initiated the project with producers/rights holders Phil Hobbs (“Full Metal Jacket”) and Steve Lanning, who are also serving as producers.

The movie has the full support and encouragement of the Kubrick family. Kubrick wrote the script following the release of his allegorical war film “Fear and Desire” and prior to directing his World War I drama “Paths of Glory.” Both films were cautionary, anti-war stories.

“The Downslope” centers on a series of Civil War battles in the Shenandoah Valley between Union General George Armstrong Custer and Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby, known as the Gray Ghost for his stealth and elusiveness. His cavalrymen, known as Mosby’s Rangers, continually outsmarted the much larger enemy forces in a sequence of raids, which enraged Custer and created a cycle of revenge between the two men.

Kubrick developed the project with Civil War historian Shelby Foote and spent years studying, developing and writing the story, as well as creating maps and notes as to how he planned to shoot the movie.

“We’ve been given the unique privilege to produce a Stanley Kubrick script no one has had the opportunity to make,” Selig said. “The first installment of the planned trilogy, written by Kubrick, is an engrossing story illustrating a crucial moment in history toward the end of the American Civil War.”

The succeeding stories will expand upon Kubrick’s original story and journey west, as post-war Americans settle the new frontier.

Kubrick, who died in 1999, was nominated for 13 Academy Awards — for directing, producing and writing “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”; for directing, writing and special visual effects on “2001: A Space Odyssey”; for directing, producing and writing “A Clockwork Orange”; for directing, producing and writing “Barry Lyndon”; and for writing “Full Metal Jacket.”

He won the special visual effects Oscar for “2001.” He also directed “Spartacus,” “Lolita,” “The Shining” and “Eyes Wide Shut.”

Forster’s credits include “Quantum of Solace,” “Stranger Than Fiction,” “The Kite Runner” and the upcoming “All I See Is You,” developed and produced with producing partner Reneé Wolfe via their creative company 2Dux2. “All I See Is You” tells the story of a blind woman, played by Blake Lively, who regains her sight as she and her husband (Jason Clarke) begin to discover previously unseen and disturbing details about their lives.