Mandrake hears that the 24-year-old actress has beaten Scarlett Johansson to the part of Eliza Doolittle in a new film adaptation of My Fair Lady.
Her victory comes as I can disclose that Joe Wright, who inspired Knightley to her best performance, in Pride and Prejudice, has been chosen to direct the film.
"Joe and Keira are looking forward to working together again immensely," says a friend of the 37-year-old director.
In August, I reported that Knightley had been forced to compete with Johansson, 24, for the role of the Cockney flower seller played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1964 film.
"I have two actresses as potential Elizas, one British, the other American," said Sir Cameron Mackintosh, who is producing the film with Duncan Kenworthy, at the time. "You'd know their names, but I'm not letting on."
Last week, Kenworthy said: "I think Keira would be absolutely fabulous in it." Emma Thompson is writing the script for the film, for which Daniel Craig has been mooted as a possible Professor Henry Higgins.
After I disclosed in 2006 that Knightley was being lined up for the part by Sir Cameron, she confirmed last year that she had auditioned and begun singing lessons.
Wright had been due to direct Indian Summer, a film about the relationship between Countess Mountbatten of Burma and Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, but he has been forced to abandon it after nine months' work. The Indian government had expressed concern about its portrayal of the alleged love affair.
