No matter how far Keira Knightley goes, she's never too far away from her next period piece. The Pride & Prejudice and Anna Karenina star is now set to play 18th-century monarch Catherine the Great in an upcoming biopic directed by Barbra Streisand.
Knightley is in talks to play the Russian ruler in a Catherine the Great film penned by Kristina Lauren Anderson, whose screenplay was selected as part of the 2014 Black List. The story will center on Catherine's abusive marriage to Emperor Peter III, who she would later lead a conspiracy against. After Peter's abdication and eventual assassination, Catherine, born Sophia Augusta Fredericka, would acend to the throne as Catherine II.
Streisand hasn't directed a film in 20 years, not since 1996's The Mirror Has Two Faces. Knightley recently signed on to join Will Smith and Helen Mirren in Collateral Beauty. [THR]
