Eyebrows were raised last December when it was reported that Barbra Streisand would end two decades away from directing for a biopic of Russian empress Catherine the Great. But she's now locking down a cast, and Keira Knightley is in early talks to star.
Streisand will direct the film based on Kristina Lauren Anderson’s script, which took the top spot on the 2014 Blacklist for unproduced screenplays. While that hasn’t always been the indicator of great eventual films, this does seem like a topic that the woman who made Yentl and The Price Of Tides can do justice to.
The biopic will find the young Catherine dealing with the rigours of royalty after 1762, when she took power following her husband’s assassination. Trapped in an abusive marriage, she nevertheless went on to make strides in modernizing the Russian empire. Knightley certainly has experience playing troubled Russian women after her turn in Anna Karenina, but it remains to be seen if she takes the job. She's about to start work on Collateral Beauty opposite Will Smith, which will probably hit our screens next year after a December release in the States.