Fresh from starring in Tom Tykwer's adaptation of Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer ("Smell it with your eyes" - Dan Jolin, Empire), it's been announced that Ben Whishaw will once again don the period costumes to play the famous English poet John Keats in a new biopic about his romance with Fanny Brawne, to be called Bright Star, to be directed by The Piano's Jane Campion.
Brawne will be played by Australian actor Abbie Cornish (who was so good in Somersault and Candy, has recently finished work on The Golden Age, and has already been rumoured for Bond 22), and despite Keats having a short and turbulent (not to mention tuberculine) existence, the film will be focusing on the relationship between the two, which lasted until his death at the age of just 25.
If you hadn't been aware of Whishaw's rapid ascent to fame – mostly via critical acclaim, particularly for his rendition of Hamlet - you might have read an interview we ran earlier this year, as one of the nominees for the Rising Star award at this year's BAFTAs. Bright Star is just one of a few projects that you'll be seeing Whishaw in soon, including the ever-troubled Brideshead Revisited and that strange Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There.