Werner Herzog will star in a new documentary paying tribute to his friend Bruce Chatwin.
Chatwin was a Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist and travel writer who explored the world extensively before his death in 1989.
While he was dying he gifted German director Herzog the rucksack he had carried around the world.
Herzog is now paying tribute to his late friend 30 years after his death, donning the rucksack on his own travels around the world for a new Arena documentary exploring the nomadic lifestyle.
The director said: “Bruce Chatwin was a writer like no other. He crafted mythical tales into voyages of the mind.
“We were kindred spirits – he as a writer, I as a film-maker.
“I wanted to make a film that is not a traditional biography but a series of encounters inspired by Bruce’s travels and ideas.”
Chatwin worked at Sotheby’s as a teenager before attempting university, and securing a job in journalism. He travelled extensively and wrote numerous books on his adventures.
He died as a result of Aids in 1989, having penned Booker Prize-shortlisted novel Utz during his illness.
Herzog will travel to Patagonia, the Black Mountains of Wales and the Australian Outback as part of the Arena documentary called Nomad – In The Footsteps Of Bruce Chatwin, which will air on BBC Two.
Mark Bell, commissioner of BBC Arts, said: “This is a film only Werner Herzog could have made – an emotional portrait of a friend and fellow traveller and a visionary hymn to the nomadic spirit before it disappears forever.”
The programme will air later this year.