British beauty Keira Knightley has taken female lead in "The Duchess", a Pathe and BBC Films' big screen adaptation of Amanda Foreman's biography "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire."
- Jul 30, 2007
AceShowbiz - Really establishing her name in period drama pieces, Keira Knightley is reportedly poised to topline "The Duchess", an adaptation of Amanda Foreman's bestselling biography of Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire, which Pathe and BBC Films are co-financing.
Here the beauty will play the titular character, described as the Princess Diana of the time, who lived in an extravagant, profligate and promiscuous life of political and romantic intrigue. Becoming an important power-broker amidst Britain's ruling elite but also running up catastrophic gambling debts, the 18th century aristocrat was alternately feted and reviled, in the meantime being widely caricatured by the popular press.
Production is said to start this October with "Bullet Boy" director Saul Dibb replacing Susanne Bier to helm from script penned by Jeffrey Hatcher. On duty to produce is Michael Kuhn, who will carry out the task through his Qwerty Films shingle.
