Keira Knightley is ‘Damned,’ As is Director John Curran

Posted by Robin Ruinsky (robin@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 6, 2009

The golden couple of the Jazz Age, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald looked great from a distance. But zoom in closer and the cracks began to show. She was a schizophrenic and he was an alcoholic. Their story will be told in the film The Beautiful and the Damned with director John Curran, The Painted Veil, at the helm.

Keira Knightley will take on the role of Zelda Sayre, but no word yet on who will be playing F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The Beautiful and the Damned is being produced by Lance Sloane Devin Sloane with FIlm Department’s Mark Gill and Robert Katz. Neil Sacker and Michael Goguen are executive producers. Shooting is scheduled to begin March of this year.

The film’s title is taken from Fitzgerald’s second novel “The Beautiful and the Damned” which, like his later novel “Tender is the Night”, was a veiled look at his marriage to Zelda.

Zelda also wrote a novel based on the couple’s marriage “Save Me the Waltz” which was published in 1932 and written while she was being treated for schizophrenia.

There’s a resurgence of interest in Fitzgerald and his work. David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based on a Fitzgerald short story. Baz Luhrmann is directing a new film version of “The Great Gatsby” the novel considered to be Fitzgerald’s masterpiece.

I’m wondering who will play F. Scott Fitzgerald. Any readers have anyone in mind?

Read more articles by Robin Ruinsky