Keira Knightley to star in biopic Colette from Carol producers

Keira Knightley is stepping back in time with her next role. EW has confirmed that the actress is in talks to star in Colette, a biopic based on the famous French novelist who was nominated for a Nobel Prize for literature in 1948, and is best known for writing Gigi. Still Alice‘s Wash Westmore will direct, with a script co-written by the late Richard Glatzer. Deadline first reported the news.

The film, which reunites the production team behind Carol, tells the story of one of France’s most prominent female writers, who gained fame when it was revealed she had been writing her novels under the name of her first husband, “Willy” Gauthier-Villers. Colette also wrote the novel Cheri, which was adapted by Stephen Frears in 2009 into a film that starred Michelle Pfeiffer.

Knightley recently made her Broadway debut in Helene Edmundson’s Therse Raquin, and starred in The Imitation Game alongside Benedict Cumberbatch. Filming will begin in Budapest in May.