Prague  - Former Czech president and playwright Vaclav Havel plans to direct a film based on his latest play, Leaving, his first screen directing experience, Havel's office confirmed Tuesday.

"It is his final decision. It took him a long time to make," Mlada Fronta Dnes daily quoted the film's producer Radka Kadlecova as saying. "He has his own clear idea about the film."

Leaving, Havel's first play in 20 years, opened in Prague in May 2008, marking a successful theatrical comeback.

Havel, 72, the icon of anti-communist resistance in Eastern Europe, served as Czechoslovak and Czech president for some 13 years between 1989 and 2003.

The play grapples with dilemmas of an ageing politician, fictitious chancellor Vilem Rieger, confronted with a sudden loss of power.

The existential piece is also seen as a critique of wild years of economic transformation to capitalism following the collapse of communism in 1989.

Havel has decided to cast his second wife Dagmar and Josef Abrham in the lead roles, the ex-president's secretary Sabina Tancevova told the German Press Agency dpa.

The playwright said he had originally penned the female lead for his wife but she pulled out from Leaving's premiere stage production at the last minute, officially for health reasons.

Filming is expected to begin next year.(dpa)