Keira Knightley is in negotiations to play Zelda Sayre, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s tempestuous lover, in a period love story called The Beautiful and the Damned, which Nick Cassavetes has just agreed to direct.

The story is about the notorious couple who became Jazz Age legends who lived large and flew high before crashing and burning. They were the toast of town in the 1920s, but their relationship and marriage was marked by jealousy and spite.  Many aspects of their relationship showed up in Fitzgerald’s novels. Sayre attempted to find an artistic identity of her own and also tried her hand at using their experiences in her writing. She eventually ended up in a sanitarium.

No one has been selected yet to play Fitzgerald, but producers have plenty of time — the film is slated to start shooting until April.