Actor Shahab Hosseini, best known for collaborations with Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi in About Elly, A Separation, and The Salesman, is set to play Iranian-American physicist and inventor Ali Javan in an upcoming biopic.

According to reports, Kourosh Ahari, who most recently directed horror-thriller The Night, is attached to write and direct the film.

Javan first proposed the concept of the gas laser in 1959 at the Bell Telephone Laboratories. A successful prototype, constructed by him in collaboration with WR Bennett, Jr, and DR Herriott, was demonstrated in 1960. Javan also contributed to the fields of quantum physics and spectroscopy. His original 1960 helium neon-laser device is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History.

Ahari, Hosseini, and producer Alex Bretow's production banner Pol Media have acquired exclusive worldwide rights to the life of Javan. The physicist is survived by two daughters, Maia and Lila Javan, who will executive produce and consult on the project.

Hosseini has starred in Farhadi's Oscar-winning films A Separation and The Salesman, for which he won the best actor award at Cannes Film Festival in 2016.

The Night, directed by Ahari, is the first American production to receive a license to release theatrically in Iran since the country's revolution. The film is slated to be released on January 29 in theatres at home and throughout North America. It set for a global release later in the year.