Keira, Ralph Fiennes in The Duchess

Friday, September 07, 2007

Washington (ANI): English actor Ralph Fiennes has been roped in to star in period drama The Duchess. The Schindler's List star has joined British actress Keira Knightley for the film, which is being directed by Saul Dibb, reports Variety. The movie, based on Amanda Foreman's biography of the scandalous 18th-century English aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, has been co-financed by Pathe and BBC Films.

Knightley will be playing the Duchess, and Fiennes will play her husband, the Duke of Devonshire. Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper are also signed on to appear in the project. The film, produced by Michael Kuhn of Qwerty Films and Gabrielle Tana of Magnolia Mae Prods, is set to start shooting September 23rd in London.