Clio Barnard Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Keira Knightley has signed on to star in and executive produce a drama series for Apple — her second commitment to a streaming TV project in the past few months. The tech giant has given a series order to The Essex Serpent, a period drama based on Sarah Perry's British Book Award-winning novel.

Naman Ramachandran Keira Knightley (“Misbehaviour”) will star in and executive produce series “The Essex Serpent,” directed by acclaimed filmmaker Clio Barnard (“The Selfish Giant”).The series is an adaptation of Sarah Perry’s bestselling novel that won book of the year at the British Book Awards in 2016. It will follow a newly widowed woman, played by Knightley, who, having being released from an abusive marriage, relocates from Victorian London to a small village in the county of Essex.

Peter White, Jake Kanter EXCLUSIVE: Colette and The Imitation Game star Keira Knightley has found her next period drama – an adaptation of Sarah Perry’s novel The Essex Serpent for Apple TV+.The streamer has ordered the project to series from See-Saw Films, the company behind The King’s Speech and Top of the Lake.

Principal photography has wrapped on “Ali & Ava,” the fourth feature from writer-director Clio Barnard (“Dark River,” “The Selfish Giant”), starring Adeel Akhtar (“Four Lions”) and Claire Rushbrook (“Secrets & Lies”).

By Tom Grater