Curran takes over Knightley's 'Damned'

Rex Features

John Curran has signed up to direct Keira Knightley in The Beautiful And The Damned, reports Variety.

The Painted Veil director stepped in after The Notebook's Nick Cassavetes dropped out of the project last year.

The period drama revolves around the tempestuous relationship between writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda Sayre, who were familiar faces on the New York social scene in the 1920s.

Knightley will play Sayre. No other casting decisions have been announced yet.

Fitzgerald has been experiencing a recent revival in Hollywood. His short story inspired Brad Pitt's The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, while Baz Luhrmann recently acquired the rights to The Great Gatsby.