Courtney Love has revealed that James McAvoy and Ryan Gosling are frontrunners to play her widow Kurt Cobain in a new film.

The singer is a co-executive producer on Heavier Than Heaven, which will tell of Cobain’s life as the frontman of Nirvana.

Love selected the actors as her favourites for the role during an appearance on US TV show The View.

She said she had been watching tapes of both Gosling and McAvoy, whom she seemed particularly interested in.

"Look at him," she said when an image of the Atonement star was shown on screen. "It's like Edward Norton and Kurt had a baby."

Twilight star Robert Pattinson had previously been linked to the role, but Love dismissed him recently as a “stupid” choice.

Cobain, who along with Nirvana popularised grunge music in the early nineties, committed suicide in 1994.

Details about a film, thought to be based on Charles Cross’ 2001 biography, Heavier Than Heaven, first emerged in 2007.

(by Jason Gregory)