Jessica Chastain May Star in a Princess Diana Biopic

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - AUGUST 09: Actress Jessica Chastain attends the premiere Of DreamWorks Pictures’ ‘The Help’ held at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Samuel Goldwyn Theater on August 9, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The ubiquitous indie starlet (her 2011 hot streak has included Tree of Life, The Help, The Debt, and Texas Killing Fields) is in talks to play the late Princess in Caught in Flight, a biopic directed by Downfall’s Olivier Hirschbiegel. The movie focuses on Diana’s closely guarded relationship with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Kahn, who was generally considered to be the love of her life. Diana dated Kahn after her divorce from Prince Charles and took great pains to keep him out of the spotlight; they split before her death in 1997*.  So, if you are the type of person who wakes up early to watch Royal Weddings, you will probably want to bring your Union Jack–print Kleenex to this one. 

* This post has been updated with the correct year of Princess Diana’s death (1997, not 2007).