Keira Knightley tapped to star in biopic 'Colette'

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Keira Knightley is currently in talks to star in Colette, a biopic based on the famous French novelist of the same name.

According to Deadline, the project is being produced by the same team behind the Academy Award nominated drama Carol, Number 9 films and Killer Films.

Set to be directed by Still Alice helmer Wash Westmoreland who co-wrote the script with his late Still Alice collaborator Richard Glatzer, the film will also be financed and co-produced by Bold Films.

Colette will tel the story of one of France's most prominent writers who was nominated for a Nobel Prize for literature in 1948. Best known for writing Gigi, Colette rose to fame when it was revealed that she had been writing her novels under the name of her first husband, "Willy" Gauthier-Villers.

Knightly is coming off her Broadway debut in Helen Edmundoson's Thérèse Raquin where she starred as main protagonist Therese.

"Keira is impeccably suited to step into the role of the iconic Colette in the early 1900s, who pushed the envelope in a time when women writers were shunned and bisexuality was scandalous. We are honored to bring her story to the big screen," said Bold Films chairman Michel Litvak to Variety.