With The Dictator in theaters, Iron Man 3 about to shoot, and a role in Convention being announced just a few days back, we’re being inundated with Ben Kingsley at the moment; savor it while it lasts. Adding to that influx would be the news that he, Stellan Skarsgård, Tom Payne, and Olivier Martinez are planning to lead The Physician, an adaptation of Noah Gordon‘s medieval novel that Philipp Stölzl (Young Goethe in Love) will direct. [THR]

Adapted for film by Jan Berger, The Physician follows Rob Cole (Payne), a (you know what he does) trying to uncover the secrets behind “illness and healing in a medieval world dominated by religion and superstition.” Trying to help him in that quest would be Ibn Sina (Kingsley), a super-doctor, and Barber (Skarsgård), his mentor & guide; Martinez is playing Shah Ala ad-Daula.

We can’t zero in on the film’s true potential just yet, but a good medieval story is bound to deliver a little entertainment; let’s hope it can actually be “good,” in the meantime. Shooting should begin next month, so we’ll know more when things finally get underway.

Here’s a longer synopsis (via Amazon):

“In the 11th century, Rob Cole left poor, disease-ridden London to make his way across the land, hustling, juggling, peddling cures to the sick—and discovering the mystical ways of healing. It was on his travels that he found his own very real gift for healing—a gift that urged him on to become a doctor. So all consuming was his dream, that he made the perilous, unheard-of journey to Persia, to its Arab universities where he would undertake a transformation that would shape his destiny forever.”

Does The Physician strike you at this point in time?