Kate Beckinsale to pen screenplay with childhood friend

Actress Kate Beckinsale has her sights set on screenwriting after teaming up with the friend she once mentored as a child.

The Underworld star, who was once a young writing competition winner, played tutor to a school pal who went on to become a scribe - and now the two women have teamed up to pen a screenplay about a dysfunctional group of friends.

Beckinsale tells C magazine, "My friend and I went to the same school in London and I wrote a lot as a child and was constantly winning writing competitions. And my mother asked her over because she wanted to become a writer.

"She became a writer and I became ridiculous."