Steve McQueen plans film about coal miners' supporter Paul Robeson

Oscar winner Steve McQueen is planning a film about the life of American singer and actor Paul Robeson - including his support for the Welsh miners.

The director, who won three Oscars for '12 Years A Slave', said he had been interested in the story since his teenage years.

Paul Robeson regularly visited the South Wales valleys and in 1940 starred in 'The Proud Valley' about a black American miner who finds work in Wales.

McQueen said he had wanted to make a film about the singer's life and legacy after his first feature film 'Hunger', but "didn't have the power" to do it.

Speaking in New York at a civil rights awards, he said a neighbour had given him a newspaper cutting about the singer while he was at school.

McQueen told the Guardian he had discussed his plans with veteran star Harry Belafonte, who had been a friend of Robeson until his death in 1976.

He said: "We get on like a house on fire. I never thought I'd make a new friend - and a man who is 87 years old - but I'm very happy, he's a beautiful man."

McQueen, who now lives in Amsterdam, is the first black director to win a best picture Oscar.

The former Turner Prize winner, who had a stint as an official war artist before moving into cinema, is also working on a BBC drama about the lives of black Londoners.