Sir Anthony Hopkins will play King Lear opposite the leading lady of the moment, Keira Knightley. The $35 million new movie was announced at the Cannes Film Festival and will feature epic battle sequences, Telegraph.co.uk reports.

It appears that Knightley, who is due to be seen in cinemas next month in the Dylan Thomas biopic “The Edge of Love”, will star as Cordelia, the youngest of Lear’s three daughters. The 23-year-old actress also stars in “The Duchess”, a lavish costume drama based on the life of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.

Gwyneth Paltrow is to take the role of Regan, Lear’s treacherous middle daughter. His eldest daughter, Goneril, is yet to be cast.

Several other projects were announced at the film festival yesterday, among them an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” starring Ben Barnes and a sequel to “The Other Boleyn Girl”, based on “The Boleyn Inheritance”, a book by Philippa Gregory.

Western Mail film critic Gary Slaymaker said he was pleased Hopkins has been offered the role on the big screen.

“Hopkins, of course, started off his career in the theatre working with the likes of Laurence Olivier and there were reports he was as good or even better at great Shakespearean roles than Richard Burton whose early performances are still revered. But Hopkins was nervous about going on stage and has been much more comfortable in cinema,” he said, quoted by icWales.co.uk.

King Lear is thought to have been written between 1603 and 1606, and is considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest works. The role of King Lear has been taken on by some of the world’s best actors, such as Olivier, Ian Holm, John Gielgud, Stacey Keach, Kevin Kline and Christopher Plummer.