Warren Beatty's Howard Hughes movie 'Rules Don't Apply' will open AFI Fest

LOS ANGELES -- Rules Don't Apply, the Warren Beatty romantic comedy/drama about Howard Hughes that's four decades in the making, is finally squaring up for a landing.

The film will make its world premiere Nov. 10 as the opening night gala at AFI Fest, the American Film Institute's annual program that's traditionally rich with awards-season fare, the festival announced Tuesday. Now in its 30th year, AFI will hold the premiere, as with most of its major screenings, at the historic TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

Rules Don't Apply marks the first time we'll see Beatty onscreen since Town & Country in 2001, and is his first time behind the camera since Bulworth in 1998. It's also the first new onscreen appearance for Hail, Caesar! Alden Ehrenreich since he landed the role of the young Han Solo.

New Regency and 20th Century Fox pulled Rules Don't Apply out of a development dive after Paramount Pictures dropped it in 2011. But the project goes back as far as the 1970s, when Beatty says he first saw the mercurial aviator/entrepreneur in a hotel lobby and became fascinated by his story.

Beatty has been working on the story and script ever since, and filming finally got underway in and around Los Angeles in early 2014 with a major ensemble cast including Lily Collins, Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Martin Sheen, Ed Harris, Oliver Platt, Candice Bergen and, of course, Annette Bening.

Though Rules Don't Apply has had some under-the-radar screenings, AFI will be the first time it screens for a large audience. The festival's full lineup will be announced in October.