"Masterpiece," about the pioneering painter's relationship with his nurse and model Monique Bourgeois, will be directed by Deepa Mehta, whose previous work includes 2003's "Bollywood Hollywood" and "Water" in 2006.
No start date has yet been fixed for the project, which will be made by production company Escape Artists from a script by Donald Martin, although casting will soon begin for the two female lead roles.
Bourgeois started to work for Matisse at the age of 21 in 1942, and featured in several of his canvases, before the war separated them until they met again in southern French town of Vence in 1946.
She had become a Dominican nun under the name Sister Jacques-Marie, and inspired him to paint a chapel there, which became one of the painter's final masterpieces.
Pacino recently won a Golden Globe for his performance as famed assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, whose controversial tactics earned him the nickname Doctor Death in "You Don't Know Jack" for HBO.
The Oscar-winning actor is also set to play controversial record producer Phil Spector in an untitled HBO movie from writer-director David Mamet.(AFP)