'Colette' Cast: Keira Knightley Plays 'Gigi' French Writer From 'Carol' Producers Bio Film

Keira Knightley is planning to take on her next starring role in the biopic Colette. The English actress is now having discussions pertaining to her taking on the lead role. The biopic will be about the titular French writer who wrote the famous novel, Gigi. This particular piece earned the French writer a Nobel Prize For Literature in 1948. Gigi was then turned into a musical in 1958 by Vincent Minnelli.

HanWay, the same production and sales team behind an indie success Carol, is now developing the said film. HanWay will work together with Bond Films, which just received a huge success with its Nightcrawler and Whiplash. One can notice the similarities between Colette and Carol since both are period pieces that are triumphantly led by a female character.

With the announcement of Knightley's possible portrayal of Colette, Bond Films' chairman Michael Litvak told The Hollywood Reporter that Knightley was "impeccably suited" to the role. Litvak then further explained more details about Colette. He shared that the film's story line will revolve around a French writer "who in the early 1900s pushed the envelope in a time when women writers were shunned and bisexuality was scandalous."

The French Author, Colette, became popular in the early years of the 20th century after the revelation that it was she who had been writing the novels published under her first husband's name, a famous Parisian, Willy Gauthier-Villers. Their marriage, obviously, ended up in a separation but that did not hinder her writing career. Colette published Cheri in 1920 then the famous Gigi in 1944, which she wrote while living in the Nazi occupation of Paris.

It is not surprising that Knightley chose to take on a role of this kind. She had been appearing in more independent and female-led films, like The Edge Of Love, The Duchess, Never Let Me Go, A Dangerous Method, Anna Karenina and Begin Again, after her work in The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.

Crossing fingers that with Colette, Keira Knightley will earn her third Academy Award nomination or even bag her first win.