Internationally acclaimed director Ang Lee of The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame will direct a love story between two young cowboys who meet one summer in Wyoming, and form a bond and love that spans 20 years.

Although the casting isn't yet official, media reports say that heartthrobs Jake Gyllenhaal, best known from the arthouse hit Donnie Darko; and Australian Heath Ledger, A Knight's Tale and more recently The Order, are in negotiations to star.

Based on an adaptation by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from a short story by Pulitzer Prize-winner E. Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain ranges from 1963 to the mid-1980s, and tracks that time period and the evolving relationship between a midwestern ranch-hand and a Texas rodeo rider.

Although the project has been long regarded as one of the great screenplays, the film seemed destined never to be made due to its controversial subject matter.

Set in Wyoming - which brings to mind the tragic beating of a gay college student, Matthew Shepard who was brutally beaten and left to die on a remote prairie - the film is set to be groundbreaking for a mainstream Hollywood picture if Lee is true is true to the story and original script.

Brokeback Mountain revolves around the two men's attraction to each other, despite going off to marry wives and father children even as they continue their affair. The film is said to portray the tempestuous love affair and will feature sex scenes between the two male actors.

"If what we are hearing about this film is true, this is a significant and groundbreaking step for Hollywood in terms of mainstream movies," said Nick Adams, entertainment and media manager at US gay rights group GLAAD. "This film will be the first to focus on the physical nature of our relationships."

Hollywood has a track record if glossing over or playing down the gay themes of the original and even real-life stories. Many will remember that in the 1993 film Philadelphia which starred Tom Hanks who played a gay man dying of Aids, and Antonio Banderas as his nominal partner, the actors had hardly any physical interaction.

Despite the success of TV shows Queer Eye for the Straight Eye and Six Feet Under, cynics may wonder if Brokeback Mountain will prove a gamble too far.

Adams however thinks that "the mainstream America is ready for it."

Production of Brokeback Mountain is set to start this summer.

In the real life, Gyllenhaal currently dates Kirsten Dunst, while Ledger has been photographed with Naomi Watts, who is 11 years his senior, at numerous events.