Here comes the Pride...

We've seen her as a football prodigy, a pirate's moll and slumming it at Glastonbury when Keira Knightley proved she could challenge even Kate Moss for the mud-spattered crown of festival queen.

Now the star of Bend It Like Beckham and Pirates Of The Caribbean is taking the next step: a costume drama. She is Elizabeth Bennet to Matthew Macfadyen's Mr Darcy in the first big-screen Pride And Prejudice since Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier took the roles in 1940.

Knightley, 20, from Teddington, describes the part as "every girl's dream" but added: "There is a huge pressure taking on a role like Elizabeth Bennet. It's one of the best roles in literature for girls, so if you get a chance to play her, you definitely can't say no.

"But equally it is scary because when you read Pride And Prejudice, you sort of feel like you own her. I know I did."

Lizzie and Fitzwilliam Darcy's lovehate relationship sparks some of the most volatile sexual chemistry in English literature and director Joe Wright confessed he was looking for two actors who shared a spark.

"When Keira and Matthew were Lizzie and Darcy, something happened and they were just wicked together," he said. "I hadn't considered someone as beautiful as Keira but when I met her I realised that she is really a tomboy.

"In the beginning Darcy can't deal with the fact that he fancies Elizabeth, so they are like children in a playground because they don't know how to express the feeling.

"While she is thinking how much she dislikes him, she is still thinking about him. They have a huge effect on each other's lives from the moment they meet."

Jane Austen's novel follows the five Bennet sisters and their mother's mission to find them husbands. The film, due for release in September, is the latest from Working Title. It has been shot on location in Britain and features Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn as Mr and Mrs Bennet.

Dame Judi Dench is the terrifying Lady Catherine De Bourgh, with Penelope Wilton as Mrs Gardiner. West End star Kelly Reilly is Caroline Bingley and Rosamund Pike is Jane Bennet.