Anchorman star keen to appear in film about soft-core porn director Meyer's collaboration with Roger Ebert on 1970's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Will Ferrell is aiming to play Russ Meyer in Russ and Roger Go Beyond, a biopic about the soft-core porn director's collaboration with screenwriter and film critic Roger Ebert, according to Deadline.

Meyer, who made a career of his obsession with women with large breasts, collaborated with Ebert on Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Released in 1970, the film is a rags-to-riches story about an all-female band who chase dreams of superstardom through the sex-obsessed Hollywood rock scene. The new film focuses on the working relationship between Meyer and Ebert, then a critic for the Chicago Sun Times. Saturday Night Live writer Chris Cluess is providing the script for the as-yet-untitled project, while casting for Ebert, who died in April 2013, has yet to be announced.

Reading on mobile? Click here to watch Beyond the Valley of the Dolls trailer.

Meyer, who worked as a combat cameraman in the second world war before moving into film-making, directed a string of camp, bizarre films that proved highly profitable, including Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Vixen! and Supervixens. Meyer's work, which attracted large audiences, often brought a surreal slant to pornographic convention.

Meyer died in 2004. His gravestone reads: "King of the Nudies … I Was Glad to Do It".

• Peter Bradshaw on Roger Ebert: stimulating, authoritative critic with formidable internet presence

• Russ Meyer, skin-flick auteur, dies aged 82