Comic Izzard promoting life story

Eddie Izzard was filmed for three years for his upcoming film Diva 51

Comic Eddie Izzard is making a film about his life which explores his transvestism and his successful three-year bid for American fame.

Diva 51 combines show footage with interviews with family and friends.

Izzard was at the Cannes Film Festival promoting the film, which is set for release in 2005.

"There's an element of my wild and large, rollicking ego about doing it, but I want the film to dig deep," he told industry paper Variety.

Awards

Izzard, who once described himself as "a lesbian trapped in a man's body", has been filming for the movie over the past three years.

It will show his exhaustive efforts to crack the US, culminating in two Emmy awards for his stand-up show and a Tony nomination for his performance in A Day In The Death of Joe Egg on Broadway.

Fellow comedians Robin Williams and Eric Idle, and actor Tim Roth, pay tribute to Izzard's talents in the documentary.

Izzard is also set to voice the part of It, a sand fairy, in a movie version of E Nesbitt's classic children's story Five Children And It.