John Curran will direct The Beautiful and the Damned, a period drama starring Keira Knightley for the Film Department.

According to Variety, Hanna Weg wrote the script that concerns the turbulent marriage of alcoholic writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his mercurial wife Zelda Sayre, who was schizophrenic. The tempestuous relationship, which unfolded in the high society of the Roaring '20s, inspired some of the novelist's works.

Knightley will play Sayre. The film reportedly had Nick Cassavetes as its director last September. He fell out along the way.

The Beautiful and the Damned begins production in March.