Pride And Prejudice: According to Variety, Matthew Macfadyen has been cast as Mr. Darcy opposite Keira Knightley's Elizabeth Bennet in Working Title's upcoming version of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."

This is the biggest movie role yet for Macfadyen, who played the lead in the BBC spy series "Spooks" (broadcast Stateside as "MI-5"). He recently starred in the Kiwi movie "In My Father's Den," in post-production.

Also joining the cast are Rosamund Pike, as Elizabeth's beautiful older sister Jane, and American actress Jena Malone as troublesome youngest sister Lydia.

Production of the movie, directed by Joe Wright from a script by Lee Hall and Deborah Moggach, has been brought forward from late August to mid-July. Producers are Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster.

Pride And Prejudice is the classic tale of an opinionated young woman and an arrogant, rich snob who overcome their initial antipathy and various other social obstacles to fall in love.